Keywords moves into software engineering with GameSim acquisition
Yet another company bought by the industry services provider
Keywords Studios has acquired engineering service provider GameSim.
The firm was bought from founder and president Andrew Tosh for an undisclosed sum, and marks Keywords first move into software engineering services.
It is the latest in a long line of acquisitions from the company, which began as a QA and localisation specialist in 1998. It now offers customer support, audio, art production and more.
GameSim, which is nine years old, is based in Florida and boasts 30 software engineers and artists. It uses its own technology to support video game developers and also simulate environments for the military and urban planning applications. Its clients include EA, Zynga and the Department of Defense.
This is just the first software engineering move, Keywords says. The firm plans to grow GameSim and even acquire further businesses in the area. The move mirrors the company's activities in the art services sector.
"The acquisition of GameSim is an entry point into outsourced software engineering services and is highly complementary to our existing essential services to game developers and publishers around the world," said Keywords CEO Andrew Day.
"Our intention is to use this as a platform from which to build a market leading engineering capability and we continue to review a number of compelling acquisition opportunities in this specialist and large, yet fragmented market."