Keywords Studios (LON:KWS) has unveiled its latest expansion via acquisition, with a deal to buy a Manila based video games support services business.
The acquired business, Ankama Asia Pte Ltd, currently provides live support services to the games developed by French group Ankama SAS, including titles such as Dofus, Wakfu and Tactile Wars.
Through the arrangement with Ankama SAS, the live operations team transfers to Keywords and it retains contracts to continue to provide services to the games company for at least four years.
Keywords meanwhile intends to expand the workforce significantly and will provide live support services its other clients from the new offices in Manila.
Currently there are 23 staff in the Manila operation. As well as live support, other services can also be offered such as promotions management, fraud management, quality assurance and ‘bot hunting’.
Andrew Day, Keywords chief executive, said: "This mutually beneficial outsourcing arrangement with one of our established clients enables Ankama to benefit from the support of a trusted and efficient partner, while it gives Keywords a platform from which it can grow its presence in Asia with the benefit of the certainty of a four year contract.
Day highlighted that the Philippines is a well-established territory for competitively priced support services, and seen as an attractive location from which to grow English language customer and live support operations.
Benoît Coupez, head of videogames at Ankama, meanwhile, said the deal was part of a strategy to refocus on its core business activities.
“This outsourcing arrangement with Keywords will help us increase the quality of our user experience, both in-game and in terms of support," Coupez added.