Publisher Square Enix is expanding one of its biggest Western studios with another new office. Crystal Dynamics is starting a new team in Austin, Texas. It is calling this studio Crystal Southwest, and it will contribute to all of Crystal Dynamics’ projects.
Executive producer Dallas Dickinson is overseeing the studio. Dickinson has worked at Crystal Dynamics for nearly two years. Prior to that he led Austin-based studio QCGames as its president and chief executive officer. That came after more than six years as a producer and director at BioWare.
And yes, I too noticed a man named Dallas is in charge of a studio in Austin.
We’re excited to announce our new development studio in Austin, Texas!
We are recruiting! Check out https://t.co/RkufS73S29 for more information. pic.twitter.com/nMwCY3lD71
— Crystal Dynamics (@CrystalDynamics) May 26, 2021
“Leading Crystal Southwest is Dallas Dickinson, an industry veteran with more than 20 years of experience developing triple-A games,” reads a social media post from Crystal Dynamics. “The initial team in Austin, made up of Crystal Dynamics veterans, is already hard at work.”
Crystal Dynamics started in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2018, it opened Crystal Northwest in Bellevue, Washington. That studio helped with Marvel’s Avengers development and will continue to support Crystal’s games in the future. And now, Crystal Southwest will do the same.
This growth for Crystal Dynamics shows that Square Enix is still investing in games from its Western studios. That was uncertain due to weak Avengers sales. In the United States, Avengers was the No. 11 best-selling game of 2020, but 2017’s Mario Kart 8 Deluxe outsold it even without including its digital sales.
Square Enix is likely signifying that it will continue to make content for Avengers while also enabling Crystal Dynamics to make new games as well. This is in addition to its Final Fantasy games, and projects like the rumored Guardians of the Galaxy from Eidos, that GamesBeat can confirm is in the works.