While the pandemic has impacted the video game industry profoundly, as regions trend back toward normality and studios reopen, a new opportunity for expansion presents itself. Capitalizing on the opportunity, Crystal Dynamics has announced that it's opening a new studio. The Square Enix subsidiary is currently based in Redwood City, California, but will be opening a new studio in Austin Texas. This will be the third studio running under the Crystal Dynamics banner.

Details regarding the new studio are somewhat thin, understandably. In a message posted on Twitter, Crystal Dynamics confirmed that the new studio in Texas will be officially dubbed Crystal Southwest. Heading the studio will be Dallas Dickinson, who has served as an executive producer for Crystal Dynamics since late 2018. Prior to that, Dickinson was the CEO of Breach developer QC Games, and prior to that Dickinson served at BioWare for nearly seven years as a Senior Producer and Director of Production.

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Exactly what Crystal Southwest will be focusing going forward isn't clear. The timing of the studio's creation could position it to support the development of Crystal Dynamics' next major game release, as Marvel's Avengers launched this past year. Alternatively, Crystal Southwest could focus instead on continued support for Marvel's Avengers going forward. Regardless, it will take some time before Crystal Southwest is fully staffed up, particularly given the difficulties associated with game development during the ongoing pandemic.

This is the second studio expansion for Crystal Dynamics since 2018. The first expansion saw the creation of Crystal Northwest, based in Bellevue Washington. That studio is currently run by technical director James Loe and director of production Chad Queen. Crystal Northwest's focus since its creation appears to have been helping develop Crystal Dynamics' most recent game release, Marvel's Avengers. It's unclear if that focus has remained on Marvel's Avengers post-launch.

With three studios, Crystal Dynamics' continued growth shows that it remains focused on increasingly large games. Given the issues with Marvel's Avengers, a third studio working on the game could, speculatively, have helped the game's development significantly. It could also have helped Crystal Dynamics deliver post-launch content on schedule, an issue the studio is still struggling with.

If there is a takeaway, however, it's that Marvel's Avengers hasn't slowed Crystal Dynamics' growth or ambition. Crystal Dynamics now has three studios. Whether the company is working on the next Tomb Raider, further Marvel games, or something else, Crystal Dynamics will be approaching it with more developer resources than ever before.

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