Here we go again, and honestly it is starting to feel exhausting. Every time the gaming industry manages to catch its breath, another wave of bad news hits. This time it comes from the Embracer Group and Crystal Dynamics, who announced through LinkedIn that more employees are being let go. It feels like we cannot go more than a few days without seeing another group of talented people lose their livelihoods, and it hurts to watch.
This latest round comes only a few months after the studio already laid off an undisclosed number of developers back in August 2025. Now close to thirty more people are out of work across several teams. These are individuals who showed up every day, poured their creativity into their projects, and helped shape franchises that millions of players care about. Once again, they are the ones paying the price for decisions far outside their control. And for those keeping score, this has been two rounds of layoffs in two months.
Crystal Dynamics calls this a difficult but necessary step, but there is only so many times we can hear that before the words stop carrying any comfort. Behind the careful corporate phrasing are real people who suddenly have to figure out what comes next. Many of them have families. Many of them relocated to work at the studio. Many of them believed in the projects they were building. Losing that stability is shattering.
Here is the statement Crystal Dynamics released:
Today we have made the difficult but necessary decision to reorganize Crystal Dynamics studios and teams. As a result, we have parted ways with just under thirty team members across various departments and projects as we restructure the company and business for our next generation. Crystal deeply thanks all of those impacted for their incredible talent, hard work, and dedication, which helped shape the studio in so many ways. We are committed to offering our fullest resources and support to you during this transition.
To our players, as the realities of the industry continue to evolve, we have 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.
We appreciate the continued support of our players, our colleagues, and our partners during this transition and we look forward to sharing the team’s amazing new work with the world in the future.
While it’s is good to know that development on the new Tomb Raider is still moving ahead, but it is becoming harder to celebrate progress when it comes at this kind of cost. The industry keeps stretching itself thin. Teams keep shrinking. Deadlines keep rising. And the people who make the games we love keep getting pushed aside when budgets get tight or long-term plans shift.
It feels like we are watching something break in real time. I really hope the trend does not continue, and that the people affected today find stability and support as they move forward. They deserve better, and the industry needs to start treating them better too.
Now, while it was not stated directly, the Embracer Group and Crystal Dynamics have recently mentioned that the company is investing in and positioning itself to use AI as a key enabler in game development. This includes efficiency improvements, creative tools, and possibly procedural content. This came from Embracer chief executive Phil Rogers back in 2025. We can only speculate, but it is hard to ignore the possibility that this push toward AI could have played a role in the layoffs we have seen across the studio over the past several months.
Crystal Dynamics has been in rough shape for a while now, with the failure of Marvel’s Avengers which shipped in 2020, being sold to the Embracer Group in 2022, and hasn’t shipped a single AAA game since then. But it has sold several remastered collections including Tomb Raider I to III Remastered in 2024, Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver 1 and 2 Remastered in late 2024, and the Tomb Raider IV to VI Remastered collection released earlier in 2025.
Source: Crystal Dynamics Linkedin
