David Rickards

Certain Affinity

Certain Affinity (CA) was founded in 2006 as a bootstrap startup with the goal of creating innovative, top-quality action games. CA brings together an exceptionally experienced, unusually talented group to form the largest independent developer in Austin, Texas. The company's 250+ full-time employees include veterans from dozens of successful game studios, with Max Hoberman, CA's founder and former Multiplayer and Online lead for the Halo series, serving as President. CA has built a strong reputation as the go-to co-development partner for AAA action titles, with recent contributions to World of Tanks, Call of Duty, and DOOM. In fact, the highly prolific studio has been lead developer or co-developer on more than 31 products across 13 different franchises, with combined sales of more than 100 million units. The company's leadership has taken a calculated, long-term approach to building the business, and is proud of its track record in its first 10 years: profitable every year and never once laying anyone off. Certain Affinity's rare exposure to so many top-tier developers, publishers, technologies, and franchises has helped the company build a one of a kind, world-class team and studio ready to take the helm on original game development. The company's 10-year anniversary marked a significant shift towards lead development, and in addition to continued co-dev work the company has two full games in development, one licensed IP and one original IP. Certain Affinity is excited to see what the next 10 years hold.