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Certain Affinity

American video game development studio

Certain Affinity is an American video game development studio based in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 2006 by Max Hoberman and a small number of other ex-Bungie employees and other industry veterans. On October 18, 2024, Certain Affinity was acquired by Keywords Studios.

01History

Certain Affinity's creation was announced in December 2006. The studio was founded by ex-Bungie employee Max Hoberman. In addition to staff from Bungie, it also includes ex-members of companies such as Microsoft, Red Storm, Origin, Electronic Arts, Digital Anvil, NCSoft, 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 game Halo 2. 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 Bungie and Microsoft Game Studios 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 genre.

Certain Affinity's first original game was Age of Booty, a downloadable real-time strategy game released on Steam, Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network. The title was published by Capcom on October 15, 2008.

The company helped Valve port Left 4 Dead to the Xbox 360.

In 2009, the company announced the completion of Halo Waypoint, developed in conjunction with 343 Industries.

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 343 Industries 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.

At RTX 2014, Certain Affinity showed off its 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.

02Games

Year Title Additional information Platform
2007 Halo 2Multiplayer DLC (Blastacular Map Pack)Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360
2008 Age of BootyMicrosoft Windows, PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade
2008 Call of Duty: World at WarMultiplayer and Multiplayer DLCMicrosoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360
2008 Left 4 DeadAssisting developmentXbox 360
2009 Halo WaypointCo-developed with 343iXbox 360
2010 Call of Duty: Black OpsMultiplayer DLCMicrosoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
2011 Halo: ReachMultiplayer DLC (Defiant Map Pack)Xbox 360
2011 Crimson AllianceXbox Live Arcade
2011 Halo: Combat Evolved AnniversaryCo-developed with 343iXbox 360
2012 Halo 4Co-developed with 343iXbox 360
2013 Call of Duty: GhostsMultiplayer and Multiplayer DLCMicrosoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
2014 Halo: The Master Chief CollectionMultiplayerXbox One
2014 Age of Booty TacticsMultiplayeriOS
2016 DoomMultiplayer co-developed with id SoftwareMicrosoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
2016 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare RemasteredCo-developed with Raven Software, High Moon Studios and BeenoxMicrosoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
2021 Halo InfiniteCo-developed with 343iMicrosoft Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X
TBA Last ExpeditionTBA
Project: Loro A new original FPS game TBA
Exodus Co-developed with Archetype Entertainment TBA
Cancelled Transformers: Reactivate Passed off to Splash Damage PC, consoles
Watch videos about Certain AffinityExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article Certain Affinity, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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