In recent years, the Saudi government has increased its stake in the video game world by buying shares in major companies such as Nintendo and holding shares in EA, Take-Two, among others. But now the Middle Eastern country wants to further expand its role in the world of video games, and it invest $38 trillion (yes, you read that right) in establishing a game development center in the country.
It will be the Savvy Gaming Group, a subsidiary of the country’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), which will try to use the billions to invest in developers and set up its own studios so it can make games more efficiently from Saudi Arabia. saudi.
In the Bloomberg report announcing the plan, it was also mentioned that Savvy Gaming Group intends to work with companies that the PIF has already invested in to kick-start Saudi game development. Furthermore, following the series of major sporting events taking place in the country, the report also states that the PIF will no longer make large-scale acquisitions in the field of esports.
Saudi Arabia’s increased involvement in the video game industry has drawn widespread criticism, due to the country’s weak commitment to human rights and suspicions that the country’s crown prince was responsible for the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.