The company providing support for Halo and COD, Certain Affinity, has laid off 25 employees

Certain Affinity, a prolific support studio involved in the development of Halo and Call of Duty games since 2007, has laid off 25 employees. This amounts to approximately 10% of its workforce, as indicated on its website’s About Us page, which states it employs over 250 staff.

In a statement on the Certain Affinity website, founder and CEO Max Hoberman mentioned that the company is facing challenges in the gaming industry.

“Over the past 12 months, the gaming industry has encountered unprecedented obstacles,” said Hoberman. “We are no exception.

“Today, we made the extremely difficult decision to inform 25 of our US-based employees that their positions are being eliminated. This primarily affects the teams responsible for business operations.

“Several factors have influenced this decision, resulting in our first layoff in our history.

“The most significant factor is a slowdown in funding for new leading and co-development projects in the industry, as well as the reluctance of third-party investors to fund games or gaming companies. This has made it extremely difficult to secure new contracts or attract other forms of funding.”

Hoberman added that those affected by the layoffs would be compensated.

“At present, our main focus is on our team and the well-being of those most affected, whom we are supporting with severance pay and the continuation of benefits,” he said. “We are also making their earned rewards under our Stock Equity Plan portable so they can benefit from the company’s success in the future.”

In August, Certain Affinity announced that it is working on an original first-person shooter codenamed Loro.

At that time, Hoberman stated that the company had presented the title behind closed doors at Gamescom, and that its playable demo “put a lot of smiles on people’s faces.”

The gaming industry continues to experience widespread layoffs, with no signs of slowing down in the near future.

It is estimated that approximately 10,500 gaming industry employees were laid off last year. And in less than three months into 2024, around 8,000 planned job cuts have already been confirmed.

Just this week, it was announced that Smilegate Barcelona closed its doors, resulting in all its employees being laid off, that Nintendo of America is reducing 120 contractor positions ahead of the launch of Switch 2, and that Sega is selling Relic Entertainment and cutting 240 jobs across Europe.