Crystal Dynamics

Crystal Dynamics was founded on 8 July 1992 as a spin-off from The 3DO Company. Its founders were Madeline Canepa and Judy Lange, former Sega marketing executives, and Dave Morse, co-founder of Amiga Corporation. Its first game, Crash 'N Burn (1993), was bundled with the 3DO console. In 1994 it became the first PlayStation developer outside Japan, thanks to a contract Mark Cerny signed in Japanese in Tokyo.

In 1995 it created Gex, starring a gecko, and published Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain (1996), made with Silicon Knights; both grew into series. In 1996, facing serious financial trouble, its investors forced layoffs and the end of its publishing business. Gex: Enter the Gecko followed, and work began on Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, this time without Silicon Knights. As losses continued, British publisher Eidos Interactive bought the studio in November 1998.

In 2003 Eidos handed it Tomb Raider, after Core Design's The Angel of Darkness flopped. The studio modernised the series with Tomb Raider: Legend (2006), Anniversary (2007) and Underworld (2008). In 2009 it became part of Square Enix, which bought Eidos's parent company. Under its new owner it rebooted the series with Tomb Raider (2013) and Rise of the Tomb Raider (2015), and passed Shadow of the Tomb Raider (2018) to Eidos-Montréal to focus on Marvel's Avengers (2020).

In August 2022 Square Enix sold the studio to Embracer Group, and Crystal Dynamics took ownership of Tomb Raider and Legacy of Kain, while Gex stayed with Square Enix. With Aspyr it remastered the six classic Tomb Raider games and Soul Reaver. In 2025 Perfect Dark, which it was making with The Initiative, was cancelled, and there were several rounds of layoffs. Based in San Carlos, California, it is working on Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis and Tomb Raider: Catalyst, due in 2027 from Amazon Game Studios.