Certain Affinity is an American

video game development Video game development (sometimes shortened to gamedev) is the process of creating a video game. It is a multidisciplinary practice, involving programming, design, art, audio, user interface, and writing. Each of those may be made up of more speci ...

studio based in

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

. It was founded in 2006 by Max Hoberman and a small number of other ex-

Bungie Bungie, Inc. is an American video game company based in Bellevue, Washington, and a subsidiary of Sony Interactive Entertainment. The company was established in May 1991 by Alex Seropian, who later brought in programmer Jason Jones (programme ...

employees and other industry veterans. On October 18, 2024, Certain Affinity was acquired by Keywords Studios.

History

Certain Affinity's creation was announced in December 2006. The studio was founded by ex-

employee Max Hoberman. In addition to staff from Bungie, it also includes ex-members of companies such as

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

, Red Storm,

Origin Origin(s) or The Origin may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Comics and manga * ''Origin'' (comics), a Wolverine comic book mini-series published by Marvel Comics in 2002 * ''The Origin'' (Buffy comic), a 1999 ''Buffy the Vampire Sl ...

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...

Digital Anvil Digital Anvil, Inc. (formerly Digital Anvil Holdings, Inc.) was an American video game developer based in Austin, Texas owned by Microsoft Game Studios (MGS). It was founded in 1996 by brothers Chris and Erin Roberts along with Tony Zurovec, Ma ...

NCSoft NCSoft Corporation (stylized as NC, formerly stylized as NCSOFT; ) is a South Korean video game developer and publisher headquartered in Pangyo, Seongnam, South Korea, primarily known for the distribution of massively multiplayer online role-pl ...

, and the now-defunct Midway Austin and Ion Storm Austin. The studio's first work was in creating two additional multiplayer levels for the popular

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand that consists of four main home video game console lines, as well as application software, applications (games), the streaming media, streaming service Xbox Cloud Gaming, and online services such as the Xbox networ ...

game ''

Halo 2 ''Halo 2'' is a 2004 first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox console. ''Halo 2'' is the second installment in the ''Halo'' franchise and the sequel to 2001's critically acclai ...

''. These maps, called "Tombstone" and "Desolation" (which comprised the "Blastacular Map Pack") were the last ''Halo 2'' maps to be released; they are remakes of levels from the original ''Halo'', called "Hang 'Em High" and "Derelict" respectively. They were released for ''Halo 2'' on the Xbox Live on April 17, 2007. These maps were not released for ''Halo 2'' Vista, but were replaced with two new maps exclusive to ''Halo 2'' Vista: "District" and "Uplift". Certain Affinity worked closely with members of

and

Microsoft Game Studios Xbox Game Studios (previously known as Microsoft Studios, Microsoft Game Studios, and Microsoft Games) is an American video game publisher based in Redmond, Washington. It was established in March 2000, spun out from an internal Games Group, fo ...

during the development of these two maps. Certain Affinity started working on another project in November 2006, which was revealed to be an unannounced original IP game in the

action role-playing game An action role-playing game (often abbreviated action RPG or ARPG) is a video game genre that combines core elements from both the action game and Role-playing video game, role-playing game genres. Definition Action role-playing games empha ...

genre. Certain Affinity's first original game was '' Age of Booty'', a downloadable

real-time strategy Real-time strategy (RTS) is a Video game genre, subgenre of strategy video games that does not progress incrementally in turn-based game, turns, but allow all players to play simultaneously, in "real time." By contrast, in Turn-based strategy, tur ...

game released on

Steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...

Xbox Live Arcade Xbox Live Arcade (or XBLA) was a video game Digital distribution in video games, digital distribution service that was available for the Xbox (console), Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles. It focused on smaller downloadable games from both major publisher ...

and

PlayStation Network PlayStation Network (PSN) is a digital media entertainment service provided by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Launched in November 2006, PSN was originally conceived for the PlayStation video game consoles, but soon extended to encompass smartp ...

. The title was published by

Capcom is a Japanese video game company. It has created a number of critically acclaimed and List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being ''Resident Evil'', ''Monster ...

on October 15, 2008. The company helped

Valve A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or Slurry, slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically Pip ...

port ''

Left 4 Dead ''Left 4 Dead'' is a 2008 first-person shooter game developed by Valve South and published by Valve. It was originally released for Windows and Xbox 360 in November 2008 and for Mac OS X in October 2010, and is the first title in the '' Left 4 ...

'' to the

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the Xbox (console), original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detail ...

. In 2009, the company announced the completion of Halo Waypoint, developed in conjunction with

343 Industries Halo Studios (formerly 343 Industries) is an American video game developer based in Redmond, Washington, part of Xbox Game Studios. Headed by Pierre Hintze, the studio is responsible for the Halo (franchise), ''Halo'' science fiction franchise, ...

. The company worked on the "Defiant Map Pack" for '' Halo: Reach'', released on March 15, 2011. The company announced its new game, due to release in summer 2011, called '' Crimson Alliance'', at RTX 2011. Certain Affinity also partnered with

again for the development of '' Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary'', which was released exclusively for Xbox 360 on November 15, 2011. At RTX 2012, Certain Affinity announced that the studio was working with 343 Industries again on developing the Forge map-making tools for ''

Halo 4 ''Halo 4'' is a 2012 first-person shooter video game developed by 343 Industries and published by Xbox Game Studios, Microsoft Studios for the Xbox 360 video game console. ''Halo 4''s story follows a Human genetic enhancement, genetically enha ...

''. At RTX 2014, Certain Affinity showed off their involvement in '' Halo: The Master Chief Collection'' with the reveal of one of the six remade Halo 2 maps, Coagulation, along with a new vehicle, the Gungoose. In 2017, Leyou Tech invested $10 million in Certain Affinity to develop an original game. In March 2024, it was announced that Certain Affinity would be laying off 25 employees, or 10% of the company's workforce. On October 18, 2024, Certain Affinity was acquired by Keywords Studios. The acquisition include a team of 180 employees based in the U.S. and Canada. Certain Affinity will continue to operate under its current leadership, including CEO Max Hoberman and President and COO Paul Sams.

Games

References

External links

* {{Keywords Studios Companies based in Austin, Texas Video game companies established in 2006 Video game companies based in Texas Video game development companies 2006 establishments in Texas 2024 mergers and acquisitions Keywords Studios