Saudi Arabia wants to have a greater share in the video game market. Through its Public Investment Fund, the Saudi government has acquired large stakes in EA, Take-Two Interactive, and Activision Blizzard, and has now bought a large chunk of Resident Evil and Monster Hunter developer, capcomand South Korean mobile developer Nexon.
Bloomberg reported that the Saudi Public Investment Fund, which is a sovereign wealth fund used to diversify the economy of Saudi Arabia beyond oil and gas, it has bought more than a 5% stake in both capcom as in Nexon. The specific dollar amount has not been disclosed, but they are said to be over $1 billion combined.
It is not the first time that the Saudi FIP has made large purchases in the video game sector. The FIP recently purchased outright ESL and FACEIT, two of the world’s largest esports leagues, for a combined price of $1.5 billion. The purchase was made through Savvy, a subsidiary of FPI, and ESL and FACEIT were merged into one organization, ESL FACEIT Group.
In early 2021, the FIP of Saudi Arabia spent more than $3 billion to buy stakes in Activision Blizzard and EA and to increase its stake in Take-Two Interactive. In 2020, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman’s Electronic Game Development Company bought a controlling stake in fighting game developer SNK.
The Public Investment Fund, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world, has as its declared objective “to create new sectors, companies and jobs” in Saudi Arabia in pursuit of the country’s “Vision 2030 goals”. This includes creating an economy that is more diverse and less dependent on oil revenues. However, these investments in video game companies are not without controversy. The Saudi government has been linked to numerous human rights abuses, and Crown Prince bin Salman has been accused of ordering the murder of Washington Post journalist and political dissident Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.