Keywords acquires four Paris-based firms

Keywords Studios has announced three new acquisitions, all in the realms of localisation and voice acting and all based in Paris.

The latest additions to Keywords portfolio are La Marque Rose, Asrec, Dune Sound and Around the Word - the latter two previously being subsidiaries of Dune Media.

La Marque Rose, Dune Sound, and Arsec all specialise in audio recording - dating back to 1989 in the case of the former - and Arsec already working with Keywords and some of its other acquired companies over the past four years. Around the Word, meanwhile, is one of the largest providers of French language video game localisation.

Dune founder Michel Golgevit has been appointed CEO for the four combined companies, and all but one of the firms' founders and shareholders will remain in the business.

Keywords plans to integrate the four into its existing Paris recorded studio, which it acquired when it purchased Synthesis back in April 2016. €1m will be invested in a new facility that can accommodate all 50 employees.

"These acquisitions are an important milestone in the development of our Localisation and Audio Services business lines in Europe," said Keywords' European MD Fulvio Sioli.

"While the trend for game developers and publishers to increasingly source all languages from a single provider is clear, some clients continue to want to transact separately for individual languages. This is still most prevalent for those regarded as pillar languages of which French is probably still the most important. 

"The combination of La Marque Rose, Dune Sound, Around the Word and Asrec with our existing Keywords studio, gives us a leading share of this games production work."

Keywords Studios has made an almost absurd number of acquisitions over the past few years. In May 2017 alone, it purchased Xloc, GameSim and Red Hot.