Keywords Studios has folded seven of its owned creative and media agencies into a single global brand, FreeAnimal, the outsourcing company confirmed this week.

The combined entity pulls in creative agencies Ichi, KWM, Fire Without Smoke, and Gnet, alongside media production studios TrailerFarm, Maverick, and Big Farmer. The seven firms now operate under the FreeAnimal banner across offices in Los Angeles, London, Brighton, Montreal, and Quebec.

FreeAnimal is positioned as a full-service creative network, spanning brand strategy, advertising creative, and trailer-to-launch media production. Together, the seven firms employ staff across North America and the UK, with bilingual production capacity anchored in Quebec.

What does FreeAnimal mean for existing clients?

Contracts with current clients remain in force, according to LinkedIn statements that all seven firms posted. New briefs will draw on a cross-agency bench rather than single-shop rosters.

"Collectively, we work with the world's most ambitious gaming brands," said John Rosenberg, FreeAnimal's global head. "By fusing seven agencies' perspectives, geographies, and experiences from across the games industry, we've created a wildly effective creative organisation that combines boutique strike teams with global scale."

Rosenberg described the operating model in one line: "At FreeAnimal we simply call the approach The Right Team for Every Game, bringing together the right specialists, at the right time, to solve the right challenge for every client."

How does the launch fit Keywords' acquisition playbook?

FreeAnimal lands as a consolidation move from a company that has spent the past decade acquiring specialists. Keywords Studios, founded in 1998, began that push in 2014 with voice production studio Liquid Violet. It has since closed deals for roughly 70 companies spanning audio, art, localisation, QA, functional QA, engineering, player support, trailer production, marketing, and data analysis.

The most recent additions include Certain Affinity, a co-developer on the Halo franchise, and work-for-hire studio Wushu Studios, both acquired in 2024.

What other restructures has Keywords executed in 2025?

FreeAnimal is the second consolidation Keywords Studios has run this year. Earlier in 2025 the company merged two of its PR firms, Fortyseven Communications and Indigo Pearl, after Fortyseven opened a London office.

The pattern points to a deliberate strategy of folding acquired studios into branded service lines, reducing client-facing fragmentation across the portfolio.

What changes operationally?

Studios and publishers that previously engaged Ichi, KWM, or Gnet for creative, or TrailerFarm, Maverick, and Big Farmer for media, will continue to work with their existing teams on live projects. New pitches, however, will pull from a cross-agency bench, prioritising flexible resourcing over fixed agency-of-record arrangements.

For Keywords Studios, the move reduces duplicated back-office functions and clarifies a marketing-services pitch that previously required clients to identify which of seven brands best fit their brief. For competitors in games marketing, it raises the bar on integrated creative-plus-media offerings.

The reorganisation also sharpens the pitch to platform holders and publishers looking to consolidate vendor lists. A single master-services agreement with FreeAnimal can now replace separate contracts with each of the seven prior entities.

What's next?

Watch for the first major joint pitch FreeAnimal wins under the new banner, and for any further roll-ups among Keywords' remaining PR and player-support units. The outsourcing company reports interim results in the second half of 2025, where investor reaction to the reorganisation will surface.