Fears of job cuts have hit employees with Irish video game and industry services firm Keyword Studios informing both staff and the government of potential collective redundancies across its Irish operations.
Located in Leopardstown, Keyword Studios was established in 1998 and provides services to 24 of the world’s top 25 gaming companies, including Nintendo, Activision Blizzard, Apple and Google.
The firm specialises in translation and testing services for the computer games industry and has expanded across the world since its founding in Ireland with more than 70 locations across Europe, the Americas, Asia and Australia.
However, speaking to the , a spokesperson for the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment said it had “received a collective redundancy notification in relation to potential redundancies” at the tech giant.
The company employs almost 350 people in Ireland, according to latest filings to the Company Registration Office.
Just last month, the multinational said it expected full-year revenue to be around 9%, excluding foreign exchange impacts and industrial action in Hollywood which resulted in a revenue hit of €20m.
Despite this, Keyword Studios reported what it called “resilient” growth in revenue and profit for 2023, adding that full-year revenue came to around €780m, reflecting growth of 13% and 17% on a constant currency basis.
Speaking on its 2023 performance, chief executive, Bertrand Bodson said, “In what was a difficult year for the industry, we delivered resilient performance in 2023 and we continued to grow our market share and industry leadership position.”
Looking forward, the firm said it expected to “deliver strong revenue and profit growth in 2023” as it “continues to manage” its cost base and “drive efficiencies across the group.”
It joins the running list of companies among Ireland’s contracting tech industry to announce job cuts this year, following layoffs across Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard, and payments firm, PayPal, which earlier this month announced it would cut 200 Irish staff as part of global cost-cutting measures.
