Specialized in esports investments but not only since it notably acquired the mobile publisher Scopely, Savvy Gaming Group, a subsidiary owned by the public investment fund of Saudi Arabia and therefore directly linked to Crown Prince Mohammed Ben Salman, had already bought $1 billion worth of Embracer shares in June 2022, which had allowed Lars Wingefors to express all the good he thought of Saudi Arabia and its generous investors. A generosity that has its limits given that the additional 2 billion dollars that Embracer had negotiated for seven months will ultimately never arrive in its pocket.
Embrace the belt
As announced last June, the consequences of the failure of this partnership will be felt in the long term with the cancellation of some unannounced games and the closure of some studios. For the moment, we only know of one studio directly affected by this restructuring, namely Campfire Cabal, a young Danish studio founded in September 2022 by THQ Nordic and former Expeditions: Rome to develop RPGs.
Axios sources were unable to determine the reasons why Savvy Gaming Group ended the partnership at the very last minute after months of negotiations. But this turnaround does not call into question Saudi Arabia’s ambitions regarding its investments in the world of video games, Riyadh seeking to diversify its activities to reduce its dependence on the oil industry and build an image of a modern and respectable.
In addition to the acquisition of SNK, Saudi Arabia has invited itself to the capital of many publishers around the world, notably nibbling 8% of Nintendo’s shares. The diversification of Saudi Arabia in areas such as video games, sport (football, golf, boxing, F1…) or entertainment in general (Disney) are often the subject of criticism accusing the kingdom of wanting to divert the conversation of his failure to respect human rights.