# Side

> Side is a global game development and services company - formerly PTW (Pole To Win) - that co-builds, tests, translates, voices, and supports many of the biggest titles in gaming. Founded in 2009 and rebranded to Side in March 2025, it runs roughly 40 studios across 14 countries with about 3,200 staff, working behind the scenes for clients including Activision, Ubisoft, EA, and Epic Games.

- **Founded:** 2009
- **Headquarters:** London, United Kingdom
- **Founders:** Deborah Kirkham (CEO (since 2019)), Teppei Tachibana (Chairman)
- **Team size:** ~3,200 employees across roughly 40 studios in 14 countries
- **Products:** Co-development (Codev), Audio Production, Art Production, Quality Assurance (QA), Localization
- **Notable:** Rebranded from PTW to Side in March 2025, unifying PTW, SIDE, 1518 Studios, Ghostpunch Games and Vibe Avenue under one name., Grew from a single quality-assurance operation to roughly 40 studios in 14 countries., Supported development on award-nominated and blockbuster titles including Split Fiction and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

## Products & services

- **Co-development (Codev)** — Full-cycle and supplemental game development support, from prototyping to shipping, working alongside a client's internal team.
- **Audio Production** — Voiceover casting, recording and direction, original music, and sound design - delivered from studios in six cities in 50+ languages.
- **Art Production** — 2D and 3D game art, concept, characters, environments and outsourced art pipelines.
- **Quality Assurance (QA)** — Functional, compatibility, compliance, and certification testing across platforms.
- **Localization** — Game translation and cultural adaptation with 1,000+ linguists, 90+ language pairs, and 50M+ words translated in a year.
- **Localization QA (LQA)** — Testing translated builds for linguistic accuracy, context, and in-game display bugs.
- **Player Support & Community Management** — Customer experience, moderation, and community operations for live games.
- **Datasets** — Data collection and annotation for AI and speech technology, including training data for game and voice systems.

## Achievements

- Rebranded from PTW to Side in March 2025, unifying PTW, SIDE, 1518 Studios, Ghostpunch Games and Vibe Avenue under one name.
- Grew from a single quality-assurance operation to roughly 40 studios in 14 countries.
- Supported development on award-nominated and blockbuster titles including Split Fiction and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
- Translated more than 50 million words of game content in a single year with 1,000+ linguists.
- Expanded audio and dialogue production capacity, including a major expansion of its Los Angeles dialogue facility.

## Latest updates

- **2025-03** — PTW officially rebrands as Side, consolidating its family of studio brands under one identity and exhibiting at GDC in San Francisco.
- **2024-08** — Reported merger/acquisition activity as the company continued expanding its studio network.
- **2024** — Acquired Ghostpunch Games and expanded operations in Charleston, South Carolina and Braga, Portugal.

## Links

- Website: https://side.inc
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sideglobal
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/sideglobal
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/sideglobalinc

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/side
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-08-13