Toronto, October 29, 2019 – Entertainment Software Association of Canada is pleased to announce Certain Affinity as its newest member. ESAC members include top video game developers, publishers, and distributors across Canada. As the voice of Canada’s video game industry, ESAC serves its membership by engaging with government, public relations, and policy stakeholders across the country and abroad. ESAC is proud of its role in supporting the growth of Canada’s video game industry and, this spring, was elated to welcome Certain Affinity’s second studio to Toronto, home to one of our country’s largest tech hubs.
In the thirteen years since Max Hoberman, President, founded Certain Affinity in Austin, Texas, the company has developed and co-developed an impressive roster of high-fidelity games, including work on multiple Call of Duty and Halo titles. The new Toronto studio, located between the Entertainment and Fashion districts, is a crucial part of Certain Affinity’s future growth and strategy. In fact, Certain Affinity is leading the development on a major, not yet announced action game set in a world-renowned franchise, and its Toronto studio is playing a pivotal role in development on this project.
“We are known for our triple-A games and in our industry, we are recognized as an exceptionally secure and incredibly high-quality employer. We chose to make Toronto our second home because of its robust development community, its diverse and inclusive culture, and its thriving talent pool,” said Max Hoberman. “A couple of years ago we made a strategic decision to shift the bulk of our operations from a co-dev business model to leading game development, and Toronto has all of the elements we need for doing this and continuing to create amazing games that our fans love and want to play.”
Certain Affinity, an independent company, currently employs more than 200 employees at its studio in Austin, and has a hiring strategy underway to more than triple its number of employees at its Toronto studio by 2020. Having just opened its Toronto doors this year, Certain Affinity is seeking talent across a wide array of disciplines interested in joining an independent triple-A game developer; a list of current job openings can be found on the Certain Affinity careers page.
“For years we have been watching Certain Affinity and the strong titles that come from their studio in Texas. We are thrilled to have them join us in Canada and at ESAC”, said Jayson Hilchie, President & CEO of ESAC. “With our strong video game development ecosystem, diverse talent, and government support, Canada is a healthy and prosperous country to create, and distribute games. We are proud to support Certain Affinity as they continue to grow their business here in Toronto. Adding new members like this ensures that we continue to diversify our voice as we work to promote and protect the video game industry in Canada.”
About Certain Affinity
Certain Affinity builds top-tier games in a great environment; balances quality of life with quality of work, empowering our teams to do their best; keeps all the fun parts of developing games and strip out all the BS. Certain Affinity, the largest independent video game developer in Austin, has opened a second game studio right here in Toronto’s Fashion District.
About ESAC
ESAC is the national voice of the video game industry in Canada. We work for our members – Activision Blizzard, Glu, EA, Gameloft, Ubisoft, Kabam, Other Ocean Interactive, Ludia, Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Relic Entertainment, Solutions 2 Go, WB Games, Square Enix, Take 2 Interactive, Codename Entertainment and Certain Affinity – to ensure legal, regulatory and public affairs environments are favourable to long-term business development. For more information, visit theESA.Ca.
