firms. It’s really people who care about the business. They run studios, or the cluster that they are taking care of, but also how can they make the best of Keywords abroad. I love that. I think there’s something really unique about that.” Bodson’s enthusiasm for Keyword’s feels genuine to
the point of infectiousness, and it extends to the whole industry to which he is still a relative newcomer. You get the feeling he wishes he’d made the switch sooner, although of course it’s unlikely that it would have been the right time for both parties that it subsequently appears to be. “I’ve loved it,” he says of his first year. “It doesn’t
the truth is that Keywords faces the same skills shortage and onboarding issues as every game creator. As a means to offset this, Keywords is developing academies across the world, an example of which is Destination India, a program in the process of being established with the Indian Government to tempt some of the million software engineers that graduate every year towards a career in gaming. It’s about, says Bodson, “how can we embed gaming skills in partnership with Epic, in partnership with Unity, and in partnership with publishers, to create more of those talents in the third year at university and then to take them as internships or in boot camps with us.” The final growth lever brings us back to what Bodson
was talking about in terms of natural adjacencies, not just in terms of supporting media and entertainment productions intended for streaming or broadcast, but investing in LiveOps as a kind of amalgam of player support and content creation, to better support GaaS efforts, and to give more serious thought to the obdurate and much maligned metaverse as it might exist in the future - as a cypher for the kind of adjacencies Keywords is increasingly keen to embrace.
IMAGINE MORE As Bodson looks back on a first year in post, it’s surprising to hear that, despite heading not just one of gaming’s largest service organisations, but one of the largest global gaming companies full stop, he looks upon Keywords almost as if it’s journey has just begun rather than one that has been steadily gaining pace for almost 25 years. “What I love is it really feels like a start-up, still today,” he says. “It really feels small. People know each other well. It’s truly entrepreneurial. That’s what I love. There is no professional manager here, like in many
16 | MCV/DEVELOP October/November 2022
feel like a job at all, so far. Maybe I’m still a bit in the honeymoon period, but I’m really enjoying every moment. Gaming is something where I find there is very little ego.” Bodson pauses, wistfully recalling the final day of this year’s Gamescom, where he cleared his schedule of meetings and spent the day stalking the halls, experiencing the crowds and the queues, and perhaps for the first time really appreciating the cultural appeal of games and just how many titles Keywords has contributed to - even if those around him had no idea who or what Keywords was. “It’s a joy! That’s where the passion really counts.”
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