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Keywords snaps up Heavy Iron Studios

Date Type Companies involved Size
September 17th, 2020 acquisition Heavy Iron Studios
Keywords Studios
$13.3m
Keywords snaps up Heavy Iron Studios

Services and software giant Keywords has made another acquisition, this time work-for-hire studio Heavy Iron.

Keywords bought the LA-based developer for $13.3m. Founded back in 1999 and bought from THQ in 2009 by its current CEO Lyle Hall, the studio has worked on titles including the recently-launched Marvel's Avengers from Square Enix, Activision's Call of Duty and Disney Infinity.

"We welcome the extremely experienced and talented Heavy Iron team to the Keywords family," Keywords boss Andrew Day (pictured) said.

"The addition of Heavy Iron to the Group further strengthens and scales our Game Development service line. By bringing a new base on the West Coast, it will provide access to many of the world's leading game companies and the local talent pool from where we can expand our activities in the region and build upon our existing presence in Audio and Localisation.""Now our largest service line, Game Development continues to grow strongly with all our studios hiring. We look forward to Lyle and his terrific team joining us and supporting Heavy Iron's continued growth from their strong position.

"This marks our third acquisition since our recent placing, and we have a healthy pipeline of acquisition opportunities which we are actively reviewing and advancing."

Heavy Iron CEO Lyle Hall added: "We are thrilled to be joining the Keywords Studios family and lookahead to sustained growth. Keywords' leading position in the video games industry, its breadth of services, and its geographical reach will strengthen our ability to continue providing outstanding service and support to our partners. We also look forward to collaborating with other members of the Group in offering wider capabilities to all our clients."


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.