Saudi Arabia used its Public Investment Fund to invest more than $ 3.3 billion (which is $ 3,300,000,000 for the most visual students) in Electronic Arts, Take-Two Interactive and Activision Blizzard, Al Jazeera reported (h / t Eurogamer)
This change, undertaken by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (known colloquially as MBS), amounts to millions of shares in each company, a decent foothold in the video game industry, but relatively small fractions of ownership.
Of the Crown Prince MiSK Foundation, a nonprofit foundation aimed at “promoting, empowering and creating a healthy environment for young creative talent” in Saudi Arabia, also got a bet of a third at Japanese gaming company SNK at the end of last year, with the ultimate goal of eventually taking majority control of the iconic studio.
Although not explicitly part of the MBS Saudi Vision 2030 general plan – which, on paper, is about attracting investors and tourism, but essentially boils down to an advertising campaign in the hope of portraying Saudi Arabia as a progressive nation instead of the monarchy medieval oppressor it really is – Its recent openings to the video game industry follow the same pattern of investments that its regime has made sports, esports, and professional wrestling.
MBS was hailed as a reformer at the beginning of his tenure as Crown Prince for, among other things, giving women the right to drive. But his supposed role in the order the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and Saudi Arabia continuation of the genocide of the Yemeni people (with the help of the United States and the United Arab Emirates) made it controversial on the global stage.
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Last summer, Riot was forced to leave a partnership with Saudi Arabia, who would have seen a League of Legends event promoting the kingdom incredibly dumb NEOM project, after reaction from the sports community.