Dublin-based Keywords Studios in new acquisition

Ellie Donnelly

Irish video-gaming company Keywords Studios has acquired the Canadian company Snowed In Studios for CAD$4m (€2.6m).

The acquisition enhances Keywords Engineering service line and expands it into Canada, a statement from Keywords said.

Founded in 2010, Snowed In offers engineering and co-development services to the video-games industry, and has well-established relationships with clients such as Ubisoft and Bethesda.

Snowed In achieved earnings of CAD$0.8m in its last financial year ending January 31 2018, from revenue of CAD$2.4m.

The company has 29 employees all working in-house in its Ottawa office led by the current owners, who will remain with Snowed In to drive its growth as part of Keywords.

"The addition of Snowed In to the group will add strength and scale to our recently established engineering service line and enable Snowed In to take advantage of the group’s very strong presence in the region to support its growth," Andrew Day, CEO of Keywords, said.

"Having grown the engineering service line from nothing in May 2017, we now employ over 300 software engineers in multiple regions, and I’m delighted that Jean-Sylvain, Tim, Evan and their highly talented and creative team are joining the group as we continue to grow."

Commenting on the acquisition, Jean-Sylvain Sormany, studio head of Snowed In said that the company was "very excited” about the acquisition.

"It will strengthen the gaming sector in Ottawa by having a large key player setting foot in the region," Mr Sormany said.

"It means stability, growth and more opportunities for talents to continue fostering in our local industry."

Last month Keywords announced the acquisition of Hollywood-based Blindlight for a total consideration of $10m (€8.5m).

Founded in 2001, Blindlight works on behalf of game publishers and developers in procuring specialised talent and managing the production processes for the parts of video games that benefit from Hollywood production resources.

Blindlight achieved average earnings of $1m (€850,000) per year over the three-year period to December 31, 2017.