SIDE THE INVISIBLE ENGINE
Matt Broughton tries to get Olivier Deslandes - Senior Vice President, Global Strategy & Growth at Side - to spill the beans. Damn NDAs…
M
att: Firstly, could you tell us a bit about your own industry background? Olivier: My introduction to the gaming
industry came through voice acting. I started in radio broadcasting in France then onto BBC World Service, which led to voicing many types of media content including games. From London, I was able to build a network of translators, voice actors and directors in multiple languages and became a consultant in game localization, working on titles such as Metal Gear Solid, Spyro, Half-Life2, Tomb Raider amongst many others. I eventually took on a full-time role as Director of Localization at Side. At that time, the market for localizing games was still in its infancy, certainly compared to where it is now. In many ways, it’s the secret to what has made gaming a $191bn industry. The practise of strong localization unlocked global audiences and launched gaming narratives into the same leagues as blockbuster movies. It’s well known now that the gaming industry is worth more than the music and film industries combined. And just as the gaming industry expanded, so
did the business. From one small studio in Soho to a global network of teams that can deliver QA, Localization, Localization QA, Datasets, Co-
38 | MCV/DEVELOP February/March 2026
development, Art, Player support and Playtests as well as Audio services. There are too many moments and people to call out
for career highlights, but certainly the expansion of our audio studios in Los Angeles, Shanghai, Tokyo and Paris were exceptionally proud moments for me and the team. We designed them from scratch, fine tuning every detail of the studio with gaming in mind.
Matt: For those perhaps not familiar with the company, can you give us the elevator pitch for Side. Olivier: Side is like an invisible engine. Sometimes called an external or support studio, we build everything except IP – but don’t take that to mean we aren’t creative. Contrary to what some may believe, external studios like Side don’t just execute the requests of the client, we are consultants and advisors as well. By today’s standards, its neigh on impossible to build a AAA or even a AA game without the support of an external partner like Side, so naturally, developers want to make sure they have the best external team they can get. Our teams work with hundreds of developers across
the industry at every stage of the development cycle. We might be working on casting and recording with a
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