Crystal Dynamics hands Tomb Raider dev lead to Flying Wild Hog under unified "Team Atlantis" model
Summary
Crystal Dynamics delegated full development of Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis to Poland's Flying Wild Hog while retaining franchise IP stewardship.
The studios operate as a single "Team Atlantis" unit under Amazon's transmedia push spanning two games and a Sophie Turner TV series.
A dedicated Crystal Dynamics franchise team with 20+ years of tenure acts as canon coherence layer across all three productions.
"Sometimes you need fresh perspectives. Sometimes you need someone new to come in and look at what you have so you can create something unique."
01
"Team Atlantis" collapses the client-vendor boundary by design
Both studios merged under a single project identity with shared creative authority, not a supervising-client structure.
"We are really good at breaking down the invisible walls that we can build between studios during development."
Creative alignment was confirmed before production: "both studios saw game development in the same way."
For external dev vendors, cultural fit now ranks alongside technical capability in AAA IP selection criteria.
02
Franchise team acts as canon layer across three concurrent productions
Crystal Dynamics is running Legacy of Atlantis, Tomb Raider: Catalyst, and the Sophie Turner TV series entering production January 2026.
A dedicated internal franchise team with 20+ years of tenure owns cross-project canon, not individual game teams.
Siqueira describes them as "engaged across the board in all projects" - a standing IP governance layer, not project-specific.
The same Lara from the Survivor trilogy (2013-2018) carries forward across all three productions - a single-canon rule enforced across distributed teams.
03
Flying Wild Hog got systems latitude, canon stayed protected
Crafting, ingredient-based healing, stat-boosting meals, skill trees, and pistol upgrades are all Flying Wild Hog additions absent from the 1996 source.
Tank controls were dropped as a modernization call, not overridden by IP owner intervention.
The team replayed the 1996 original and 2007 Anniversary remake to map what required preservation versus what could be redesigned.
Art Director Arek Tomaszewski participated in the source retrospective - embedding fidelity judgment at the authorial level, not just PM oversight.
04
Coordination architecture between the two games remains undisclosed
Siqueira confirmed "definite collaboration" between Legacy of Atlantis and Catalyst but declined to detail coordination mechanics.
Amazon's role is framed only as "a commitment to the franchise" - no production oversight or milestone governance is disclosed.
The financial, scheduling, and milestone architecture of this three-production arrangement remains opaque to the market.
What this means
For Service Vendors: Philosophical alignment and shared vocabulary now function as gating criteria for AAA co-development bids under transmedia IP holders.
For Publishers & Developers: A standing franchise team - not per-project canon leads - is the operational answer to character drift across simultaneous external productions.
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