{"id":5363,"date":"2021-12-30T23:20:11","date_gmt":"2021-12-31T06:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gamesround.com\/blog\/?p=5363"},"modified":"2021-12-30T23:20:12","modified_gmt":"2021-12-31T06:20:12","slug":"keywords-studios-acquires-game-studio-wicked-witch-for-6-5m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gamesround.com\/blog\/keywords-studios-acquires-game-studio-wicked-witch-for-6-5m","title":{"rendered":"Keywords Studios Acquires Game Studio Wicked Witch For $6.5M"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Dublin-based video games specialist <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamesround.com\/blog\/keywords-studios-acquires-indigo-pearl-and-jinglebell\" title=\"Keywords Studios acquires Indigo Pearl and Jinglebell\">Keywords Studios<\/a> revealed it had purchased Melbourne-based game development studio Wicked Witch for $6.5 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is the second acquisition for Keywords in Australia this year. The deal was brokered by Tantalus Media, a company with which Keywords has previously invested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p>&#8220;We are very excited to join our friends at Tantalus as part of the Keywords group and to help to expand the business in Australia and beyond,&#8221; said Wicked Witch studio head Steve Dauterman. &#8220;The acquisition will help accelerate our growth and provide our clients and staff with the opportunities that come with joining this industry-leading global business. We are looking forward to the next phase in the studio&#8217;s development as part of the Keywords group&#8221;.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Wicked Witch offers work-for-hire creation services for major publishers, such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamesround.com\/blog\/microsoft-to-acquire-zenimax-media\" title=\"Microsoft to acquire ZeniMax Media\">Microsoft<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamesround.com\/blog\/riot-games-will-invest-10-million-in-minority-owned-game-studios\" title=\"Riot Games will invest $10 million in minority-owned game studios\">Riot Games<\/a>, as well as and Australia-based developers. The firm was founded in 2001 and focused on the game and graphic development for multiple platforms, including mobile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p>&#8220;Wicked Witch&#8217;s skilled and talented team is a great addition to our game development service line and will increase our ability to meet clients&#8217; strong demand for technical development solutions,&#8221; commented said Bertrand Bodson, CEO, Keywords Studios.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>The 73-person studio is expected to generate $6 million in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Wicked Witch buyout follows after Keywords agreed to acquire London-based marketing agency <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamesround.com\/blog\/keywords-studios-buys-waste-creative-for-12-9m\" title=\"Keywords Studios Buys Waste Creative For $12.9m\">Waste Creative<\/a> for $12.9 million. Waste Creative provides creative production services to mobile game developers, including Supercell, Nintendo, and Riot Games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition, Keywords opened its new studio in Canada to focus on game testing and hired Bertrand Bodson as its new CEO in September. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keywords also reported its financial forecast for 2021, indicating it would generate $570 million throughout the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Send your news to <a href=\"mailto:news@gamesround.com\">news@gamesround.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dublin-based video games specialist Keywords Studios revealed it had purchased Melbourne-based game development studio Wicked Witch for $6.5 million. This is the second acquisition for Keywords in Australia this year. The deal was brokered by Tantalus Media, a company with which Keywords has previously invested. &#8220;We are very excited to join our friends at Tantalus [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":5364,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[189,1200,525,128,33,1196,1199],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gamesround.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5363"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gamesround.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gamesround.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gamesround.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gamesround.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5363"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.gamesround.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5374,"href":"https:\/\/www.gamesround.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5363\/revisions\/5374"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gamesround.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gamesround.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gamesround.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gamesround.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}