Crystal Dynamics Lays Off 20 More Employees, Fourth Round in Under a Year

Crystal Dynamics has announced another round of layoffs, letting go of 20 employees across its development and central operations departments.

In the statement, the studio said, "As our current projects move into new phases of development, we continuously take a hard look at our team structures to ensure they align with our long-term studio goals."

The laid-off employees will receive severance packages and job placement assistance.

Crystal Dynamics had 273 employees at the time of its acquisition by Embracer Group back in 2022. Since then, the numbers have taken repeated hits. The studio went through three separate rounds of layoffs throughout 2025 alone.

The first came in March, cutting 17 positions. The second followed in August, though the number of employees affected was never officially disclosed.

The third arrived in November, where just under 30 team members were let go across various departments. Now, 20 more have been added to that count in early 2026.

Despite all of this, the studio was clear about one thing. Crystal Dynamics stated it "remains fully committed to the future development of our already announced Tomb Raider titles." Those titles include Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, a remake of the original 1996 game set for release later this year, and a brand new entry called Tomb Raider: Catalyst, which is targeting a 2027 release.

Both games were officially announced at The Game Awards in December 2025.

Both games are being published by Amazon Game Studios, which has had its own difficult period recently, dealing with several cancellations, closures, and internal layoffs.

It is worth noting that Crystal Dynamics was also previously involved in supporting the development of Perfect Dark for Xbox, a project that was later cancelled, which contributed to the August 2025 layoffs.