Game outsourcing outfit Keywords snaps up Liquid art firm for $9M

Dublin-based Keywords Studios, which contracts with video game companies like Ubisoft, Konami, and CD Projekt Red to provide services like localization and QA testing, has snapped up video game art services studio Liquid Development for $9 million.

Unless you happen to be working with either company right now, the deal is chiefly notable because it further solidifies Keywords' status as a one-stop shop for outsourcing game production.

In the wake of this deal, well-respected Liquid (based out of Portland) joins Latin American localization company Kite Team, Brazilian localizers Reverb Localização and customer support specialists Alchemic Dream in the list of game production outsourcing companies acquired by Keywords this year.

"The acquisition of Liquid Development significantly increases the scale of our art services business line, giving us greater penetration of this large and strongly growing market as well as increased access to this early entry point in the video games development cycle," stated Keywords chief Andrew Day in a press release announcing the buy. "We have already seen how our newly opened art studio in Seattle is able to act as a 'front end' for art production in our Indian studios and we look forward to accelerating this model with Liquid Development."

The 200+ Liquid staffers (50 of whom work out of Portland) will now be working in conjunction with the art production teams Keywords established in Lakshya, India last year.