Crystal Dynamics Has Laid Off Its Staff After Its Funding Deal Fell Through

Video Games

Sep 5

Crystal Dynamics laid off an unspecified number of its staff last week without providing specific reasoning; however, the decision came on the heels of several funding deal negotiations falling through.

Crystal Dynamics, a division of Embracer Group AB, is a game studio staple within the industry. The game Perfect Dark, announced in 2020, was unfortunately cancelled back in July of this year. Bloomberg reported, based on anonymous sources, that the original failure to arrive on agreeable terms may have come down to who would ultimately own the rights to the Perfect Dark franchise. Initially, talks brought the video game publisher, Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., and Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox to the table for discussion. Of course, Xbox owns the rights to the game. Take-Two was apparently willing to buy, fund, and publish the game, but talks broke down around the topic of what entity would ultimately own the franchise moving forward.

After Xbox confirmed the cancellation of the rebooted game publicly, Crystal Dynamics was allowed to seek funding through other publishers. Many publishers entered negotiations with Crystal Dynamics, all of which have fallen through. About a week later, the long-running video game studio has laid off many of its staff without giving specific reasons as to why. Bloomberg noted that the information shared that the reasons spokespeople remained anonymous were that they were not authorized to speak on the subject. Bloomberg also said that “Representatives for Embracer, Xbox, and Take-Two all declined to comment.”

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