M+E Europe
Keywords Studios Acquires U.S.-Based High Voltage Software
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Keywords Studios has announced it will acquire High Voltage Software (HVS), a privately owned game development services firm, for a total of approximately $50 million.
Based near Chicago, with a subsidiary studio in New Orleans, High Voltage is an end-to-end, full-service, AAA game developer, whose recent works include Fortnite and The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners. Company founder Kerry Ganofsky will continue leading the studio within Keywords Studios.
“With its 27-year pedigree of game development in the global video games market, High Voltage brings incredible experience, expertise and additional scale to our fast growing Game Development Service Line,” said Keywords Studios CEO Andrew Day. “The multi-talented team at HVS brings deep expertise in the Unreal Game Engine development environment, honed particularly well in recent years through working closely with Epic Games on Fortnite, as well as a track record of having worked with many client proprietary game engines, gaming platforms and game genres, which all adds further breadth and depth to Keywords Studios’ existing capabilities.
“It also adds a new presence in Chicago, and in New Orleans, for the Group, providing access to an additional pool of talent. I am very pleased indeed to welcome Kerry and the crew at HVS to the Keywords Studios family and look forward to enabling their continued growth as part of the Group.”
HVS and its team of game development professionals has shipped more than 100 games across all genres and platforms, with other notable titles including Saints Row, Mortal Kombat, Hunter the Reckoning, The Conduit and Lego Racers.
“We are overjoyed to join an industry-leading global group such as Keywords Studios. We are tremendously excited they share our vision for augmenting our development capabilities and they will provide us the ability to embark upon a growth trajectory for our business creating the next generation of AAA games,” Ganofsky said. “Furthermore, Keywords Studios’ investment in our studio is an outstanding sign for the continued expansion of game development in Illinois and Louisiana. We genuinely look forward to working together with everyone at Keywords Studios and fulfilling a noteworthy role in this new journey with them.”
