Portsmouth-based Climax Studios, one of the UK’s longest-running game development studios, has been acquired by Keyword Studios, one of the industry’s key service providers.
Keywords acquisitions have become a regular feature of our news coverage for many year, initially the company centred on acquiring service provider such art houses, QA, audio and even PR firms.
However, it has also now taken on a significant number of end-to-end game development providers, with Climax Studios joining the likes of d3t, Studio Gobo, Electric Square and Wizcorp, among others.
Even then Climax Studios, which has been running for 33 years, is a major investment with 109 staff led by CEO Simon Gardner. The studio has worked on titles such as Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, Crackdown 3 and Returnal, out next week on PS5.
Video games services provider Keywords Studios has acquired UK-based Climax Studios for up to £43 million.
The price includes an initial consideration of £20.2 million in cash and the equivalent of £6.8 million in new ordinary shares, with a deferred consideration of up to £16 million, in a mix of cash and new ordinary shares, payable based on targets being met over the year following completion.
The deal is part of the groupâs strategy to become the major technical and creative services platform for the industry, and will bring significant additional scale to Keywords Studiosâ game development service line.
Founded in 1988 Climax Studios provides game development services to the video games industry, employing 109 staff. The company has provided full game development, co-development, porting and technical consulting services to major games publishers including Sony, Microsoft, 2K, Codemasters and Electronic Arts. Among its recent titles are Silent Hill