Keywords Studios acquires Waste Creative and Wicked Witch

Keywords Studios has revealed that it has acquired UK-based marketing agency Waste Creative and Australian games development studio Wicked Witch.

Based in London, Waste Creative provides services including community management for mobile game studios including Supercell, Nintendo, and Riot Games.

The acquisition aims to address an increased player demand for games-as-a-service support, with emphasis placed on engagement and retention. The studio’s co-founders, along with the rest of its 70-person team, will remain with the company following the acquisition.

As part of the acquisiton, Keywords will pay Waste Creative up to £9.8 million ($13 million) over the next three years, with an initial consideration of £2.2 million ($2.9 million) in both cash and shares. The remaining £7.6 million ($10.1 million) will be paid in via a mixture of cash and shares, depedent on the company's performance.

Waste Creative is predicted to make $10 million in revenue by the year ending 30 June 2022.

"By working with Keywords, we will be able to expand our services to meet our clients’ full marketing needs from early access/beta launch stage to the ongoing growth, retention and management of their player and fan communities," said commented Waste Creative co-founder Visar Statovci.

Keywords Studios CEO Bertrand Bodson commented: "Games as a service marketing support with a focus on community growth and fan retention are areas of increasing importance to our clients and Waste Creative will help us meet that growing demand and provide them with extensive and more integrated marketing solutions."

Australian acquisition

Founded in 2001, Melbourne-based Wicked Witch has provided game and graphic development support across multiple platforms including mobile. It has worked with both large publishers such as Microsoft and Riot Games and Australia-based developers.

Keywords has acquired Wicked Witch for $6.5 million in cash, with the firm projected to generated $6 million throughout 2022.

Commenting on the acquisition, Bonson said: "Wicked Witch’s skilled and talented team is a great addition to our game development service line and will increase our ability to meet clients’ strong demand for technical development solutions."

Earlier this year, Keywords acquired UK-based development service provider Climax Studios for up $60 million.