Games giant Keywords has made two more acquisitions as the firm reports its half-year financials.
First up is LA audio production company Sound Lab. The firm has worked on the likes of the Final Fantasy, Resident Evil, Gears of War, Fable and Epic Mickey franchises, as well as other projects for the likes of Riot and Activision.
Brighton-based marketing creative firm The Trailer Farm has also joined the Keywords family, with the games giant saying this complements its other recent marketing purchase, Fire Without Smoke.
“I’m delighted to welcome Scott and his team into the Keywords family," CEO Andrew Day (pictured) said.
"As games become ever more immersive, sound design quality is getting ever closer to that of movies. Our new Sound Lab studio, created around Scott and his team, will be integrated within the Keywords Audio Services Line and will benefit accordingly from our global network of studios and our extensive video game client base around the world.
"Our presence in audio services continues to grow. In Los Angeles, with our long-established voice-over studio in Burbank, the recently acquired Blindlight LLC, which focuses on Hollywood voice-over production and writing services, and our specialist music services through recent Keywords joiners, Cord and Laced. The sound design services we are adding with this investment help round out the full suite of audio services we are now able to offer to clients in interactive and linear media.
"Trailers are the primary marketing asset for video games and Keywords’ ability to produce trailers across the spectrum from cost-effective small productions to the very high-end trailers for triple-A games positions us well in this interesting segment of the games services market. Bringing together art, animation, sound effect, music and voiced audio, trailers can further act as a showcase for our range of services and creative abilities.”
The firm has also reported its financials for the six months ending June 30th, 2018. Overall, revenue has risen 72 per cent to $128.6m for this period.
"In a period in which the gaming phenomenon, Fortnite, had a significant impact on the games market and in which the US dollar which represented 54 per cent of our revenues declined by 12 per cent compared to the same period in 2017, we have none the less delivered yet another strong set of results for the first six months of 2018 as we continue to deepen and broaden the business for the future," Day said.
"Our continued organic investment and acquisitions have extended our geographical reach, added further scale to our existing service lines, and broadened the range of capabilities we can offer our clients to include co-development, analytics, music, marketing services and sound effects."
We caught up with Day earlier this year to talk about Keywords' acquisition strategy at the moment.
