Crystal Dynamics has announced it is laying off 20 employees across its development and operations teams, marking the fourth round of job cuts at the studio in the past year. The layoffs come as the game studio behind the Tomb Raider reboot trilogy works to align its team structures with long-term studio goals. The company stated these cuts are "necessary" as current projects move into new development phases.

Affected employees include an environment artist and a senior animator with 15 years of experience, according to comments on the studio's LinkedIn announcement. This wave of layoffs follows Ubisoft's recent cuts of over 100 employees, highlighting ongoing challenges in the gaming industry. Crystal Dynamics confirmed that its current projects remain on track, including Tomb Raider: Catalyst, which is slated for a 2027 cross-platform launch.

The studio emphasized its commitment to future Tomb Raider titles despite the workforce reduction. Crystal Dynamics is providing severance and job placement assistance to affected employees and has asked the industry to help connect them with new opportunities. The company acknowledged that such news "can cause concern amongst our community" but maintains that its development pipeline remains intact.