30 Workers at Crystal Dynamics Hit With Layoffs in Studio’s Third Wave of Cuts This Year

In March of 2025, the company laid off 17 staff members, and later in August it announced that it had laid off an undisclosed number of its staff. As of now, it is unclear exactly how many employees Crystal Dynamics still has from its previous 273 workers. 

“To our players—as the realities of the industry continue to evolve, we’ve made these painful choices as a way to optimize the continued development of our flagship Tomb Raider game, as well as shaping the rest of the studio to make new games for the future,” the studio’s statement continued. 

Given that the known number of employees laid off is nearing 50, with the actual number being unknown and likely higher, it’s hard to see these layoffs as anything less than completely catastrophic for the developer and everyone involved. Following the cancellation of the Perfect Dark reboot by Microsoft earlier this year, the latest Tomb Raider game is now the only currently known project Crystal Dynamics is working on. While the studio claims this will “optimize” the continued development of the title, whatever remaining staff still works there will likely have to do more work than ever before as they pick up tasks from those now laid off. 

The upcoming Tomb Raider game is set to be published by Amazon Games. Amazon is also behind a Tomb Raider live-action series, which stars Sophie Turner and is expected to start production in January of 2026. The future of the famous video game protagonist Lara Croft remains uncertain in this present moment. For now, one can only send their thoughts to those affected by all the layoffs this year.