Pole to Win‘s Side division has reached an agreement to acquire interactive music and sound studio Vibe Avenue, which will be rebranded to Side Montreal and bring sound design, music composition, as well as soundtrack production expertise to Side’s existing audio offerings.
As part of the agreement, Mathieu Lavoie and François-Xavier Dupas, who founded the company, will become senior director and creative director of music & sound at Side Montreal. They will report to Olivier Deslandes, the senior vice president of audio and speech technology.
“We’re thrilled to join an industry leader like PTW and add our talents to their audio division – this match brings together the best of both worlds, resources and scale alongside talent and new services,” said Lavoie. “I’m excited to see what sort of magic we can make together at SIDE for our clients,” continued Dupas.
After it was established in 2013, Vibe Avenue went from just two people to a team of 17, including composers, sound designers, voice designers, production experts and other artists. In the last 10 years, the studio has partnered with well-known companies like SEGA, Square Enix, Norsfell, Marvel and Wizards of the Coast to work on famous franchises.
An important milestone for growth
Deborah Kirkham, CEO of PTW said, “At PTW, a key component to our growth strategy is bringing on best-in-class talent and continually expanding our service offerings – this acquisition checks both boxes. Not only does Vibe Avenue have some of the best audio talent in the industry, but we can now offer clients new sound design capabilities we didn’t previously have. I look forward to welcoming everyone from Vibe Avenue into the PTW family as SIDE Montreal.”
Apart from being one of the leading companies in the boutique-to-scale industry, Vibe Avenue also has previous experience with mobile games like Star Trek: Fleet Command. They offer services like localisation, outsourcing, and testing, and their SIDE sub-brand specialises in audio services.
Isa Muhammad is a writer and video game journalist covering many aspects of entertainment media including the film industry. He's steadily writing his way to the sharp end of journalism and enjoys staying informed. If he's not reading, playing video games or catching up on his favourite TV series, then he's probably writing about them.
