Crystal Dynamics
Crystal Dynamics is a US-based gaming software companies in San Francisco. Crystal Dynamics developed games for both the PC and for different game consoles. The house was briefly active as a publisher. Mainly, the in-house developed games were marketed.
History
Crystal Dynamics was founded in 1992 by Judy Lang, Madaline Canepa and Dave Morris, who had previously worked among others as a senior marketing staff for the game console manufacturer Sega. One of the first employees counted among other Mark Cerny. The first release of the studio was the racing game Crash ' n Burn in November 1993 released for the new game console 3DO. In the fall of 1993, Strauss Zelnick, the former managing director of the film studio 20th Century Fox, hired as the new CEO, who set up the studio both as a developer as well as publisher. First major notoriety gained the studio with his series Gex, whose first game was released in 1994 for the 3DO and has been ported to other platforms.
In September 1998, the deficit studio was bought by British publisher Eidos Interactive for 47.5 million U.S. dollars. From the late 1990s, the studio especially for the development of the Legacy of Kain series was known. After 2003, however, the Core Design developed Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness, Eidos ' most successful brand, received bad reviews and could not meet the expectations of the Group, the series creators, the development of the brand was withdrawn and transferred instead to Crystal Dynamics. Tomb Raider has since been the core product of the company. The Tomb Raider: Legend Crystal Dynamics developed Crystal Engine (also CDC or Crystal Engine) also was of Eidos Montreal Deus Ex: Human Revolution uses. Since the acquisition of Eidos in 2009 Crystal Dynamics is a subsidiary of Japanese publisher Square Enix.
Gallery
Entrance sign at company headquarters in Redwood City / California
Entrance of the studio premises
Conference room; rear left a Lara Croft figure