Marvel's Avengers is a action role-playing brawler developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Square Enix and was released in September 2020.
Marvel's Avengers
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Crystal Dynamics is an American video game developer based in San Mateo, California, founded in 1992 as a spin-off of The 3DO Company. It is best known as the modern custodian of Tomb Raider, but its history runs deeper than Lara Croft, taking in the Legacy of Kain and Gex series, a high-profile Marvel game, and a run of remasters. The studio is currently part of Embracer Group after decades passing between owners.
Crystal Dynamics started life making games for the 3DO console, shipping the pack-in title Crash 'n Burn in 1993, and in 1994 became the first developer to make PlayStation games outside Japan. In the mid-1990s it created the wisecracking gecko platformer Gex and published Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, both of which grew into franchises. After financial trouble late in the decade, the studio was acquired by Eidos Interactive in 1998, the move that would eventually put Tomb Raider in its hands.
In 2003, Eidos handed Tomb Raider to Crystal Dynamics following the poor reception of Core Design's Angel of Darkness. The studio rebuilt the series with Tomb Raider: Legend in 2006, then Anniversary and Underworld, before launching the acclaimed reboot trilogy with Tomb Raider in 2013 and Rise of the Tomb Raider in 2015. It moved to a support role on Shadow of the Tomb Raider in 2018 while its main team worked elsewhere. Crystal Dynamics has stewarded the franchise across more than 25 years of games, films, and comics, and it remains the studio most associated with Lara Croft.
Announced in 2017 and released in 2020, Marvel's Avengers was Crystal Dynamics' biggest departure from Tomb Raider, a live-service action game built around the core Avengers roster and originally published by Square Enix. It launched to a mixed reception and struggled to hold players, and Square Enix later pointed to it as a commercial disappointment. Crystal Dynamics supported it with post-launch content until the servers were wound down, and the project is often cited as a turning point that preceded the studio's sale.
Crystal Dynamics became part of Square Enix in 2009 through its acquisition of Eidos, then was sold to Embracer Group in August 2022 alongside several sister studios, gaining more autonomous control over the Tomb Raider brand in the process. It operates today with satellite studios and continues to work on both original projects and the Tomb Raider series under head of studio Scot Amos.
Crystal Dynamics is developing the next Tomb Raider game, with Amazon Games publishing, marking the first time the series has moved to an Amazon partnership. The studio has also returned to its back catalog through remasters, working with Aspyr on the Tomb Raider Remastered collections and the Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 and 2 remaster, and it has provided development support to The Initiative on the new Perfect Dark. Between the new Tomb Raider and its restoration work, the studio's recent direction leans heavily on the franchises it built its name on.
Marvel's Avengers is a action role-playing brawler developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Square Enix and was released in September 2020.