In a market where more video game developers are releasing titles across multiple platforms and in a multitude of countries, Keywords Studios' (KWS) acquisition-heavy strategy makes good sense. The games technical service provider bought three new companies during the first half of the year, expanding its geographical coverage and broadening its services in audio. Taking advantage of the cross-selling opportunities these acquisitions have thrown up meant Keywords grew the number of clients using three or more services to 60 from 51 the previous year.
Audio services - which provides multi-language voice-over and original language voice recording services to blockbuster games - almost quadrupled sales to €9.1m (£7.7m). This was driven by the newly acquired audio testing company Synthesis, which completed some very large new audio projects in addition to its usual work. This acquisition, as well as contributions from last year's acquisition of Kite Team, also helped drive an almost 80 per cent increase in sales for the localisation business to €14m.