Crystal Dynamics

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Crystal Dynamics

logo
legal form Incorporated
founding 1992
Seat Redwood City , California , United StatesUnited StatesUnited States 
management Scot Amos
Ron Rosenberg
Branch Software development
Website www.crystald.com

Crystal Dynamics is an American game software company based in San Francisco . The subsidiary of the Japanese computer game manufacturer Square Enix develops games for both the PC and various game consoles . The company became known a. a. through the Gex and Legacy of Kain game series . From 2003 to 2015, Crystal Dynamics was primarily responsible for the development of the Tomb Raider series . For a short time the company was also active as a publisher , but mainly for the games developed in-house.

history

Crystal Dynamics was founded in 1992 by Judy Lang, Madeline Canepa and Dave Morris, who previously worked, among other things, as senior marketing employees for the game console manufacturer Sega . One of the first employees was Mark Cerny , who worked in product development from 1992 to 1994.

Crystal Dynamics was the first licensed independent developer for the 3DO game console , but the console has been slow to get to market. However, Cerny, who had previously worked for Sega in Japan for several years and was familiar with both language and customs, learned that the multimedia company Sony was working on a new CD-ROM console. He then traveled to Tokyo to request a developer kit for Crystal Dynamics. At that time, however, only Japanese developers were supplied with developer kits, including a. because the license agreements were only available in Japanese. Although not authorized to sign, Cerny signed the contract. With the advocacy of Sonymanager Shuhei Yoshida , who is responsible for third-party developer contracts , Crystal Dynamics was the first American studio to approve a PlayStation developer kit, contrary to internal guidelines.

However, the studio's first release was the racing game Crash 'n Burn , released in November 1993 for the 3DO . In the fall of 1993, Strauss Zelnick , the previous managing director of the film studio 20th Century Fox , was hired as the new CEO , who set up the studio as both a developer and a publisher. The studio first became well-known with its Gex series , the first game of which was published in 1994 for 3DO and ported to other platforms.

In September 1998, the loss-making studio was bought by British publisher Eidos Interactive for $ 47.5 million. From the late 1990s, the studio was best known for developing the Legacy of Kain series. However, after the Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness , Eidos' most successful brand, developed by Core Design , received bad reviews and failed to meet the group's expectations in 2003 , the series creators were deprived of further development of the series and instead transferred to Crystal Dynamics. Tomb Raider has been the company's core product ever since. The Crystal Dynamics Crystal Engine (also CDC or Crystal Engine) developed for Tomb Raider: Legend was also used by Eidos Montreal for Deus Ex: Human Revolution . Since the takeover of Eidos in 2009, Crystal Dynamics has been a subsidiary of the Japanese publisher Square Enix .

In 2010, a restart of the story about Lara Croft with the simple title Tomb Raider was announced, which was released on March 5, 2013 for Windows PCs, Xbox 360 and PS3, later also in a revised version as the Definitive Edition for Xbox One and PlayStation 4 . The game was generally well received. The reasons for this were, among other things, the changed portrayal of Lara Croft as a young archeology student, who is initially completely overwhelmed with the challenges presented in the game. Only in the course of the game does she finally develop into a well-known action heroine. According to its own statements, it was the studio's largest project to date, for which it received support from its sister studio Eidos Montreal (multiplayer) and some contract developers. According to studio manager Gallagher, the title set the industry-wide record for the most successful sales launch in the first week of sales, both in series and in 2013. In the first 48 hours, Square Enix registered over one million active players, and by the end of March 2013 3.4 million copies had been sold. Still, these numbers failed to meet Square Enix's original sales expectations according to the March 2013 annual report. The title was described as an underperformer, among others, and Square Enix recorded large losses overall, which is why long-time managing director Yōichi Wada gave up management of the company. In a review by Gallagher at the beginning of March 2014, however, the assessment was significantly more positive. By the end of the month, the studio expects to reach six million copies sold, the title had already reached profitability since the previous year and was more profitable than originally forecast. Gallagher himself was appointed Head of Studios of all North American and European development studios of Square Enix in June 2013 in addition to his role as studio manager of Crystal Dynamics.

At E3 2014, a successor entitled Rise of the Tomb Raider was announced, which is based on the events of the reboot. At gamescom 2014, the title was finally announced as part of Microsoft's “Only on Xbox” program for Christmas 2015 and exclusively for Microsoft's Xbox One game console. After initial irritations, this exclusivity was confirmed as limited in time. a. on Xbox 360 should therefore follow. Microsoft also officially took over the role of publisher for this exclusive marketing. Compared to Euro Gamer said Phil Spencer , Microsoft's director of Xbox division and Microsoft Game Studios , this agreement with the fact that Rise of the Tomb Raider as a direct competitor to the PS4 exclusive Uncharted 4 should be built because the console manufacturers in the successful series of Sony's daughter Studio Naughty Dog could not match a corresponding title of its own in terms of quality. To promote the game, Crystal Dynamics, in collaboration with actor and director Stephen Lunsford ( Teen Wolf , Kamen Rider: Dragon Knight ), announced the shooting of a live-action series that would serve as the prelude to the game. Darrell Gallagher left the company in December 2015, and Scot Amos and Ron Rosenberg took over as studio management.

gallery

  • Logo from 2000

  • Entrance sign at the company's headquarters in Redwood City, California

  • Entrance area of ​​the studio space

  • Conference room; back left a Lara Croft figure

Published titles

Web links

Commons : Crystal Dynamics  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Interview with Mark Cerny
  2. ↑ Father of PS4 Mark Cerny Was Initially Denied his First PlayStation DevKit, Shuhei Yoshida Saved Him
  3. ↑ a b Lawrence M. Fisher: Sound Bytes; The Not-So-Silent Screen ( English ) In: New York Times . February 13, 1994. Retrieved March 6, 2014.
  4. ↑ Exclusive: The American Who Designed the PlayStation 4 and Remade Sony
  5. ↑ PS4 and Mark Cerny: “All Part of Shuhei Yoshida's Master Plan” Who is the Real Father of the PS4?
  6. ↑ http://www.telecompaper.com/news/eidos-acquires-crystal-dynamics-for-usdlr475-mil--147708
  7. ↑ http://www.looki.de/games/tomb_raider_knftig_nicht_mehr_von_core_design__news_n11883.html
  8. ^ Daniel Möllendorf: Deus Ex 3: Viewed from a technical perspective - Update: new game impressions . In: PC Games Hardware . Computec Media Group . October 3, 2010. Retrieved August 29, 2011.
  9. ↑ Square Enix Completes Eidos Integration ( Memento from January 4, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  10. ↑ http://www.gamestar.de/spiele/tomb-raider/news/tomb_raider,45190,2319752.html
  11. ↑ http://www.spieletipps.de/ps3/tomb-raider-9/
  12. ↑ http://www.4players.de/4players.php/spielinfonews/Allgemein/25623/2139148/Tomb_Raider-Gewinnerwartung_uebertroffen.html
  13. ↑ Gamespot
  14. ↑ Gamespot
  15. ↑ 4Players
  16. ↑ 4Players
  17. ↑ 4Players
  18. ↑ VG247
  19. ↑ http://www.onlinewelten.com/games/rise-of-the-tomb-raider/news/xbox-exklusivitaet-zeitlich-begrenzt-127803/
  20. ↑ http://www.gameswelt.de/rise-of-the-tomb-raider/news/microsoft-fungiert-offiziell-als-publisher,232957
  21. ↑ Eurogamer
  22. ↑ http://www.gamestar.de/spiele/rise-of-the-tomb-raider/news/rise_of_the_tomb_raider,51197,3081210.html
  23. ^ Square Enix Head Of Western Development Darrell Gallagher Leaves After A Decade. In: Game Informer. Retrieved August 31, 2016 .
  24. ↑ Rise of the Tomb Raider - 20 Year Celebration: Bulging with all sorts of extras - Test. Retrieved on August 22, 2018 (German).