Eidos has cut 25 staff at its San Francisco, US-based studio Crystal Dynamics.
The publisher said the move was designed to "focus resources" at the Tomb Raider: Underworld developer.
"We can confirm that Crystal Dynamics has made a reduction of approximately 25 people at the San Francisco studio," Eidos said in a statement issued to Edge.
"This decision is a reflection of the continued drive to focus resources at the studio. We would like to thank all of the employees affected by this difficult decision for their hard work during their time at Crystal and we wish them all the best in the future."
Back in January Crystal Dynamics suffered a similar reduction in headcount after sales of Tomb Raider: Underworld fell short of Eidos' forecasts.
You can bet your bottom dollar that it is the artists, programmers and level designers being let go, instead of the marketing, advertising and management c**ks, who were responsible for the failures i.e. not releasing a PS2 version (which has always traditionally sold the strongest), as well as making the stupid decision to release the title in the Christmas glut period.
I'm not the biggest Tomb Raider fan in the world, but I am sick of seeing the wrong people punished by publishers.
I thought there was a PS2 version, it might have been released a long time after the others.
Its a shame that those people are losing their jobs. Would've thought that Square-Enix buying Eidos should've prevented this sort of thing, I guess Square don't care about the workers, just what money they can gain from the new games they've acquired.
You can bet your bottom dollar that it is the artists, programmers and level designers being let go, instead of the marketing, advertising and management c**ks, who were responsible for the failures i.e. not releasing a PS2 version (which has always traditionally sold the strongest), as well as making the stupid decision to release the title in the Christmas glut period.
I'm not the biggest Tomb Raider fan in the world, but I am sick of seeing the wrong people punished by publishers.
i think that the stagnant (basically last gen) gameplay, dodgy camera and the fact you can still use the same backflip shoot strategy that's been used in nearly every Tomb Raider game is down to those programmers and level designers. sure releasing it in the crimbo glut of games didn't help but neither did the fact that the game was pretty dull and a lot of people who bought previous versions have become bored of the franchise especially anyone who's played Uncharted. i'd say the game was marketed more than the other games that came out around the same time like Fallout 3 and Dead Space. it seems that maybe Lara just doesn't sell games anymore.
There was a PS2 version, out bit later than the others. And i disagree with the view that Lara games dont sell. If i recall a artcle on this site reporting it sold 1.2 million copies within months of release. I feel the publisher just had too high expectations for it. Its a not a mega seller like the first games, but it does sell well.
i think that the stagnant (basically last gen) gameplay, dodgy camera and the fact you can still use the same backflip shoot strategy that's been used in nearly every Tomb Raider game is down to those programmers and level designers. sure releasing it in the crimbo glut of games didn't help but neither did the fact that the game was pretty dull and a lot of people who bought previous versions have become bored of the franchise especially anyone who's played Uncharted. i'd say the game was marketed more than the other games that came out around the same time like Fallout 3 and Dead Space. it seems that maybe Lara just doesn't sell games anymore.
Good points, but I still hold to the opinion that management and marketing departments get a free ride and it's usually the ones who make the games who end up suffering. There are plenty of game developers out there who have lost jobs, due to stupid decisions made by management and marketing departments.
Some of the stories on Gamasutra (such as what happened with EA's C&C FPS) back up what I'm saying.
Although you are right that Tomb Raider has been riding on it's past successes for too long.
The biggest problem with Tomb Raider : Underworld was that a deal was done with Microsoft for the 360 to get exclusive DLC. Instead of making a good game and then creating DLC, CD cut levels from the game to create the DLC for MS leaving the core game feeling incomplete and short,
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