Crystal Dynamics
Crystal Dynamics, the development studio behind the Tomb Raider franchise, announced today that they have expanded their operations by opening up a new studio. Located in Bellevue, Washington the new studio is called Crystal Northwest.

The studio has officially started up operations already. It is a "full-fledged extension of Crystal Dynamics" and it will initially help develop new technologies for the studio. It is also helping to work on the upcoming Avengers Project.

Crystal Northwest is led by game industry veterans Chad Queen and James Loe.
Among the dozens of new hires are world-class developers like Vincent Napoli, the new Lead Combat Designer at Crystal Dynamics who was most recently on the latest God of War, plus Ben Wanat, an 18-year industry veteran and an original co-founder of the Dead Space franchise, who led the development of Dead Space 3 as Creative Director. Joining them is David Fifield, who sports 20 years of experience as Executive Producer and Design Director at 343 Industries on Halo, as well as Game Director at Raven Software on numerous Call of Duty titles. Crystal Dynamics continues to attract the best and the brightest talent across all disciplines, many recently hailing from the likes of Naughty Dog, Pixar, EA, and many more.

“Our new studio in Bellevue, and the new hires in Redwood Shores, represent our continued commitment to the most ambitious project we’ve ever created,” said Ron Rosenberg, Co-Head of Studio at Crystal Dynamics. “We’ll keep building on the exciting growth Crystal Dynamics has experienced over the last several years, and are eager to deliver a world-class Avengers experience for fans around the world.”

Crystal Dynamics has been around now for nearly 26 years. They have brought the world games and franchises such as Gex, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, and Tomb Raider among others.