23rd Sep 2014 11:04
LONDON (Alliance News) - Keywords Studios PLC Tuesday expressed confidence in meeting full-year expectations ahead of the launch of new video game titles in the fourth quarter, as three acquisitions helped it to swing to a profit in the 26 weeks to the end of June.
Keywords provides technical services to the video games industry. It proposed an interim dividend of 0.36 pence, up from 0.33 pence in the previous year.
The company posted a pretax profit of EUR35,988, swung from a loss of EUR247,887 in the 27 weeks to July 8, 2013, as revenue almost doubled to EUR14.3 million from EUR7.2 million, boosted by the company's acquisitions of Liquid Violet Ltd in January, Babel Media Ltd in February and Binari Sonori Srl in May.
The acquisitions also helped to shuffle Keywords' product mix, increasing its level of sales in Functional Testing services and lowering its reliance on Localisation testing. Additionally, the acquisitions increased its presence in North America, taking sales up to 45% in the region compared to 24% a year before.
During the year the company worked on video game titles including 'Game of War: Fire Age', 'Watchdogs', 'Assassins Creed' and 'Minecraft,' amongst others, and picked up new clients including The Sega Corp.
The company said that although it has seen steadier production schedules through the first three quarters of the year than in previous years, it expects a heavier weighting towards the fourth quarter as video game studios plan launches for the pre-Easter release window in 2015 rather than the more traditional Christmas and Thanksgiving period.
This heavier weighting is partly due to "rejuvenation" of the console market following the launch of new consoles at the end of last year, Microsoft Corp's Xbox One has now been launched into 28 territories that were omitted from the original launch; and the console will be launched in China later in the year. The company said that the opening of the "Chinese market to the sale of video game consoles for the first time is being watched with interest."
Shares in Keywords Studios were trading 2.4% lower at 140.00 pence per share Tuesday morning.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
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