Tomb Raider and Marvel's Avengers developer is hiring for a new AAA game

Tomb Raider and Marvel's Avengers developer Crystal Dynamics is hiring for a brand new AAA game.

Over on the official Crystal Dynamics website, the developer is seeking a gameplay camera designer. What's notable about the role is that it wants applicants who can "join now to be part of the formative stages of a new AAA game being built in our Redwood City Studio."

This would seem to give away that Crystal Dynamics is already working on their next game after Marvel's Avengers. If you're unfamiliar with the developer's past, before taking their talents to the superhero genre, they rebooted Tomb Raider in 2013, followed by Rise of the Tomb Raider two years later in 2015, before handing off the series to Square Enix's Montreal studio to work on Marvel's Avengers.

Marvel's Avengers doesn't appear to have been the hit either Crystal Dynamics or Square Enix were hoping for, however. A few months after the game launched in late 2020, Square Enix posted a loss of $48m for the fiscal 2020 year, following disappointing sales of Marvel's Avengers.

More recently, Crystal Dynamics clarified and defended their decision to rework the XP grind in Marvel's Avengers earlier this month. The developer revealed that, when the next-gen version of Marvel's Avengers launches, the rate at which players earn XP will be significantly altered so that you're only leveling up once every two-to-four missions. The decision sparked some backlash from the game's community, leading the developer to state that it wasn't introducing the XP grind for the sake of grinding and nothing else.

The next-gen version of Marvel's Avengers is actually releasing tomorrow, on March 18, on PS5, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S. The game has near-instant loading times on Sony's next-gen console, and new playable hero Hawkeye will be joining the game's expanding roster. Both Hawkeye and the next-gen upgrade are free for anyone who already owns Marvel's Avengers.

See how the cinematic side of the Marvel universe is expanding over the next few years with our complete guide to Marvel Phase 4.