Savvy Games Group’s strategy to become a force in gaming | Brian Ward interview

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Brian Ward, CEO of Savvy Games Group, has taken the lead in helping Saudi Arabia’s attempt to move beyond its reputation for human rights abuses and being an oil nation to being a visionary technology leader bankrolling the game industry.

This tension between the past and the future is ever-present in Saudi Arabia, where companies like Savvy Games Group — owned by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia — are trying to change perceptions through games while remaining cognizant of the kingdom’s appetite for measured change. Ward believes people have to see the change happening in society on the ground in Saudi Arabia in order to understand how quickly things can happen under the new regime that is mostly supportive of the game industry. There is perhaps no other country where the clash between tradition and modernity — something my world history talked about so long ago — is so stark.

The change and the deals have been happening at a dizzying rate. It’s like a big game of Monopoly, and the playing board of the game industry is set up on a global scale.

Savvy Games Group acquired Los Angeles-based mobile game publisher Scopely for $4.9 billion in April, and it bought a $1 billion stake in Sweden-based game publisher Embracer Group. It also acquired ESL Gaming and FaceIt in esports to create ESL FaceIt Group. And the Saudis have also bought stakes in Capcom, Nexon and Nintendo this year, building