The Next Gaming Hub of the World? Saudi Arabia Pumps Almost $40,000,000,000 to Boost Video Gaming Industry in Riyadh

In past years, the Gaming industry has turned into a mega field of the entertainment business. With a $184 billion global market, new players are dipping their toes every day, hoping to get a piece of it. In a recent report, it has been revealed that one of the biggest Oil exporters in the world, Saudi Arabia, is also set to invest in the gaming scene. 

Being one of the most technologically advanced nations in the world, the Middle-Eastern nation is looking forward to making innovations in the gaming industry by funding its local developers of Riyadh. The initiative is stirred by “Savvy Games Group”. A company launched and fully owned by the Saudi Arabian government’s Public Investment Fund (PIF)

Saudi Arabia bets $38 Billion to improve nation’s gaming scene 

With the funds, Savvy Games Group hopes to improve the struggling games industry of the nation. Initially, they focused on the eSports scene, which was in desperate need of a push. As Chief Executive Officer Brian Ward said, “We are now more of an esports company than a games company,”

In an interview with Bloomberg, Ward shared Savvy’s current plans. “What we’re doing this year is focusing more on game publishing and development.” stated Brian Ward. Although the initiative started as a support for the esports scene, the focus right now is to make the nation’s local developers, a prominent players in the market. 

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Utilizing the Funds, Savvy Games have made some billion dollar investments in some of the biggest names in the global gaming industry, including Nintendo Co., Tencent Holdings Ltd., and Activision Blizzard Inc. According to Ward, Savvy is planning to leverage these connections in order to build its future business.

“We would like to use those investments to begin to work with these companies” said Ward, hoping to utilize the experience and expertise of these companies to improve the gaming scene in the Middle East and North Africa. It was also revealed that the fund had increased its Stake in Nintendo to 8.3% making it the company’s biggest outside holder. 

Recent studies have revealed that 58% of the country’s total population are ‘gamers’ which is not far away from USA’s 66%. Currently, the country doesn’t have many contributions to the global gaming market, but it is believed that, by 2026, Saudi Arabia’s games market is expected to grow by 56% to $2.79 billion. 

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