It looks like Crystal Dynamics, the folks who bring us the Tomb Raider games (except for the upcoming Shadow of the Tomb Raider, which is being worked on by Eidos Montreal), is expanding greatly. They have opened up a brand new studio in Seattle (Crystal Northwest), in the Bellevue, Washington area.

The new studio is also being accompanied by new hires, including Vincent Napoli, who joins the studio as Lead Combat Designer at Crystal Dynamics. Other talent they’ve recruited comes from EA Visceral, 343 Industries, Naughty Dog, Disney, and Pixar- so they’ve got some really high grade folks working for them over there.

“We’re aggressively scaling up our teams and adding a new studio with spectacular talent to deliver the ultimate gaming experiences for our players,” said Scot Amos, Co-Head of Studio at Crystal Dynamics. “We have assembled a team of industry veterans and leaders in order to create gaming experiences that surpass the expectations of our passionate community.”

Presumably, a lot of this hiring is happening for the upcoming Avengers game from Square Enix, which Crystal Dynamics is supposed to be working on. In fact, in their statement, while not actually naming the game, Crystal Dynamics does confirm the expansion is because of its new, “most ambitious” project yet.

“Our new studio in Bellevue, and the new hires in Redwood Shores, represent our continued commitment to the most ambitious project we’ve ever created,” said Ron Rosenberg, Co-Head of Studio at Crystal Dynamics. Notably, he did go on to explicitly mention The Avengers. “We’ll keep building on the exciting growth Crystal Dynamics has experienced over the last several years, and are eager to deliver a world-class Avengers experience for fans around the world.”

Hopefully, all of this talent can come together and deliver something truly special with this new game, whatever it is and whenever it comes out.

Eidos Montreal have put up a job listing on their official website which seems to be for their upcoming Marvel projects, judging by the nature of the position. The listing is for the position of a “monetization specialist” for in-game stores, which obviously hints at GaaS-type titles.

As per the ad, the applicant will be responsible for a variety of things, including stuff such as “managing and improving the in-game stores in terms of content, experience and pricing strategy” and setting up “sponsoring mechanics, coupons, rebate, deal, cross-selling and up-selling offers”. The listing doesn’t state the name of the game for which all of this applies but perhaps this is for their upcoming Avengers project? Seems likely.

There aren’t a lot of details available on the Avengers project, we do know that Eidos Montreal are also currently working it. Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more coverage. What are your thoughts on this? Let us know in the comments section below.

The job requirements are below:

Functions:

• Create and manage A / B promotion and test campaigns inside and between Eidos Montreal titles.
• Set up sponsorship mechanisms, coupons, discounts, offers, cross-sells and special offers.
• Create loyalty efforts, newsletters, and customer segmentations.
• Manage and improve the content of the game in terms of content, experience and pricing strategy.
• Define, track, analyze and improve the KPIs of the company and provide reports on an ongoing basis.

Duties:

• Eidos Montreal titles.
• Set-up sponsoring mechanics, coupons, rebate, deal, cross-selling and up-selling offers.
• Create customer loyalty efforts, newsletters and customer segmentations.
• Manage and improve the in-game store in terms of content, experience and pricing strategy.
• Define, follow, analyze and improve on the business KPIs and provide reporting on an on-going basis.