The games industry has been caught in a relentless wave of mass layoffs for roughly a year and a half at this point, and more names are continuing to join that ever-growing list every week. The newest addition is Halo Infinite support studio Certain Affinity, which recently announced the first ever round of layoffs in its 17-plus year history.
CEO Max Hoberman announced in a recently published update that Certain Affinity is laying off 25 people, with the bulk of the job cuts impacting “the teams running our business operations.” As Hoberman explains it, this is down to in widespread reluctance among investors to fund new projects, and an “industry-wide slowdown” of funding for new co-development and support projects.
“There are multiple factors underlying this decision to do a layoff for the first time in our 17+ year history,” Hoberman wrote. “Most significant is an industry-wide slowdown in the funding of new lead and co-development projects and the reluctance of third-party investors to fund games or game companies. This has made it exceptionally difficult to sign new work or secure other forms of funding.
“Our current focus is on our team and the well-being of those most impacted, whom we are supporting with severance pay and benefits continuation. We are also making their vested awards under our Stock Equity Plan portable so they may benefit from the company’s success in the future.”
Certain Affinity has served as co-developer on a number of notable titles over the years, including multiple Halo and Call of Duty titles, DOOM, Left 4 Dead, and more.
In April 2022, it was announced that Certain Affinity had partnered with 343 Industries and Microsoft to “further evolve Halo Infinite in some new and exciting ways”. Reports claimed that the studio was working on new battle royale experience, but earlier this year, it was claimed that the project had been cancelled.
Last year, Certain Affinity announced that it was working on an original first-person shooter codenamed Project Loro, while in February, Archetype Entertainment announced that the studio would serve as lead co-developer on its upcoming sci-fi RPG, Exodus.
Leaks claims in 2022 that Certain Affinity had partnered with Microsoft for an Xbox-exclusive Monster Hunter-inspired action RPG, though the status of that project is currently unknown.