Saudi Arabia to Acquire Big Game Publisher for $13 Billion
Saudi Arabia intends to invest tens of billions of dollars in the gaming market and take over one of the industry's key publishers.
Recent years have been a period of massive acquisitions in the video game industry. Microsoft and Embracer in particular have been very active in this field. Saudi Arabia wants to join them.
- Saudi-funded conglomerate The Savvy Gaming Group intends to invest $37.8 billion in the gaming market.
- Of this amount, more than $13 billion is reserved for the acquisition of one of the largest publishers of. For now, it is not known which company the Sauds intend to acquire.
- $18 billion will go to smaller investments in various developers and companies in the industry.
- The Savvy Gaming Group also has plans to set up its own development studios.
- The group intends to establish a total of about 250 companies related to the gaming industry and create 39,000 new jobs.
It's worth mentioning that The Savvy Gaming Group already has a lot of spending to its credit. In January, the conglomerate acquired esports organizations ESL and Faceit for $1.5 billion. In turn, in June it invested $1 billion in the Embracer group. It should be added that through other entities, Saudi Arabia has previously spent billions of dollars investing in companies such as Electronic Arts, Nintendo, Activision Blizzard and Take-Two Interactive.
Investing in video games and other industries is part of the Vision 2030 initiative, under which Saudi Arabia wants to diversify its economy, among other things. However, there are criticisms, suggesting that one of the goals of the whole endeavor is to whitewash the Saudi monarchy's image, tarnished especially by the case of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which was supposedly approved by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
These allegations are refuted by managing director of The Savvy Gaming Group Brian Ward, who previously held similar roles at Electronic Arts and Activision. He claims the group is a classic commercial venture that is primarily intended to make money.
