what you need to know
- Certain Affinity is an industry-leading video game support studio based in the United States and Canada.
- Certain Affinity contributes to dozens of titles including DOOM, Call of Duty and Halo, and is rumored to be working on a battle royale-like mode for Halo Infinite alongside a new title codenamed Suerte.
- In a new interview with VentureBeat, they may have offered some clues as to the existence of both projects.
Founded by ex-Bungie veteran Max Hoberman, Certain Affinity has been working on Halo since Halo 2, supporting the campaign and multiplayer alongside Bungie and now 343 Industries. Certain Affinity built the (underrated) arena deathmatch gameplay for DOOM 2016, supported Call of Duty Modern Warfare Remastered, and helped fix Halo: Master Chief Collection while supporting Halo Infinite.
Earlier this year we announced that Certain Affinity was collaborating extensively with Microsoft across the Xbox portfolio. We found out that Certain Affinity is working on a brand new original game, codenamed Project Suerte, that could reportedly be reminiscent of games like Monster Hunter – although hard details remain unclear. But for Halo fans, we discovered that the team is leading the development of a brand new multiplayer mode, currently codenamed Tatanka.
Since we revealed the codename, an extensive list of clues about Halo public APIs and data mining has surfaced, giving us a glimpse of what it might be. The best way to describe it might be somewhere between Halo 5’s big team Warzone and a traditional “light” battle royale, complete with shrinking circles to create pressure and round up fighters. However, unlike a traditional battle royale, it appears that you have “lives” and other ways to revive within the game, bypassing the elimination-style gameplay pioneered by titles like PUBG.
In a new interview with VentureBeat, Certain Affinity’s new COO, Paul Sams, detailed a range of issues and teased a major Halo project that certainly jibes with our Tatanka reports from earlier in the year.
“The biggest thing we’re doing right now is public, we’ve been working on Halo Infinite for more than two years and we’re doing something that — they’re very prescriptive about what we can say. But we’re doing something unannounced, and we’re doing the development of that unannounced thing, from concept to design. It’s something big and new for the franchise. But I can’t say more about it. This is our largest single project out of our three projects that we currently have, almost 100 developers are working on it.”
Sams discussed a variety of topics in the interview, from the legacy of Certain Affinity to working on more recent titles like Amazon’s New World MMO and Harry Potter RPG Hogwarts Legacy.
Hoberman joined Sams to discuss the potential for developing original games within the studio, which may provide further clues to the mysterious codename “Suerte” we received a while back. When asked about Certain Affinity wanting to move away from a support studio and build its own intellectual property (IP), Sams and CEO Max Hoberman had some interesting answers.
“It is certainly our claim to be able to do this. We see the benefits of building our own intellectual property and owning our own intellectual property. We feel committed to that. Max can talk more about it. […] He’s done [building IP] more outside of the arc with his novel work, but he’s also done it in the company. Everything I saw of him was really solid. I think it will position the company well as we build our own intellectual property.”
Hoberman chimed in that their IP explorations are “still an experiment” and that they don’t want to “overpromise.” So if they actually do it are As for Suerte, it’s entirely possible that it may actually never see the light of day. Anyway, given the skill of Certain Affinity and the developer pedigree that exists within the team, I hope that’s the case.
Get Halo Infinite multiplayer for free now on Xbox and PC, or play the campaign as part of Xbox Game Pass.
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