Saudi Arabia wants to spend $13B to buy a 'leading game publisher'

pcgamer.com:

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been making some big moves into the gaming space in recent years. Through various public agencies, it's made big investments in Capcom, Nexon,Nintendo(opens in new tab),ESL Gaming(opens in new tab),SNK(opens in new tab), and Embracer Group(opens in new tab). And it's not done yet: Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who multiple intelligence agencies believe is responsible for the brutal murder and dismemberment of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi(opens in new tab) in 2018, has announced plans to invest nearly $38 billion across four separate programs, more than $13 billion of which will go toward acquiring «a leading game publisher.»

The investments will be made by Savvy Games Group, a fully-owned subsidiary of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, which is chaired by bin Salman, widely considered the architect of the ongoing civil war in Yemen(opens in new tab) that has resulted in an estimated 377,000 deaths. Here's how the investment will be divided:

«Savvy Games Group is one part of our ambitious strategy aiming to make Saudi Arabia the ultimate global hub for the games and esports sector by 2030,» bin Salman said in a Saudi Press Agency release(opens in new tab) (via Axios(opens in new tab)). «We are harnessing the untapped potential across the esports and games sector to diversify our economy, drive innovation in the sector and further scale the entertainment and esports competition offerings across the Kingdom.»

Savvy Games Group expects its strategy to result in the creation of 250 game companies in Saudi Arabia, generating 39,000 jobs and boosting the industry's contribution to Saudi Arabia's GDP to $13.3 billion—the cost of the publisher acquisition—by 2030.

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