Keywords buys development engineering provider Coconut Lizard for $2.47M

Keywords Studios has acquired specialized game development company Coconut Lizard for a fee that could rise to £2 million ($2.47 million). 

Based in the UK, Coconut Lizard offers a variety of development engineering services including game optimizations, hardening, porting, and middleware integration, with a particular focus on Unreal Engine. 

The company has previously worked with Sea of Thieves developer Rare to help support and developer the tongue-in-cheek pirate simulator.

"The Coconut Lizard team will bring further expertise in the Unreal Engine as well as access to talent to our wider team of around 1,000 people working across our Game Development studios internationally," said Keywords chief exec Andrew Day, commenting on the deal.

"Having recently successfully raised £100m in a placing, we are pleased to have completed our first acquisition despite the COVID-19 pandemic. We expect to complete further acquisitions over the months ahead from the strong and attractive pipeline of opportunities that we are currently reviewing."

As Keywords readies itself for even more acquisitions, it's worth noting that the company has already splashed plenty of cash in a bid to become a one-stop-shop service provider. 

It has made a number of multi-million dollar purchases over the past year, including a major triple acquisition that saw it grab translation tech developer Katan, creative marketing company Ichi Holdings, and recording studio Syllabes for a combined $12.5 million.