According to a recent US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), chaired by controversial crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, has acquired more than $3 billion worth of stock in famous video game publishers Activision Blizzard, EA and Take-Two. The investment is broken down to around $1.3 billion in Activision Blizzard shares, $1 billion in EA shares and $825m in Take-Two shares. According to Eurogamer, this amounts to around 3.5%, 2.6% and 3.5% of those respective companies' share totals.

This is not the first time the crown prince invested in video game companies as in late 2020, his charity acquired 33.3% of Japanese gaming company SNK stock, making it the largest shareholder.

However, the crown prince's involvement in the video games industry has not always been welcome. In June 2020, League of Legends developer Riot terminated a partnership for a project funded by Mohammed bin Salman following backlash from the eSports community.

SOURCE

 

[raxadian]

Probably so they can control what games are released and made

To control a company you have to have more shares that anyone else, typically between 30% and 40% of the shares is enough.

 

[leon315]

Haha Game company's Stock go Brr

YEP, we like stocks.

 

[Axido]

Titanfall and NFS Most Wanted remake were quite good, just to name a few

Make it TItanfall 2 and I'm with you.
NFS Most Wanted '12, however, is what I consider not worthy of the name. It was nothing like the original Most Wanted (which I loved to death) and to be honest, I couldn't touch any NFS game after Criterion turned the franchise into a Burnout spinoff. If you did enjoy it, I tolerate that, but to me the series died with that particular title.

 

[Deleted member 534570]

That's just them begging to localize games like WoW, CoD, or any other fantasy/war game as most of them were either never localized or were upright banned from being sold in the country. OR it may be an attempt to start censoring games. You'll never know.

 

[Gamer90Kirby]

Good for them, I support any country that has free healthcare and college education for its citizens.

 

[altorn]

will we get games like OILWATCH from blizzard? or, oh shit, DESERT STRIKE (remake) from EA???

 

[notimp]

The most reliable gamers are the ones, buying the worst games every year, because theres a new one out.

Confirmed.

 

[diggeloid]

I wonder if they'd invest more if these companies stopped publishing games with female protagonists, or even just women with basic human rights?

That might be why they didn't invest in Naughty Dog or Ubisoft lol

 

[Coto]

It means nothing unless Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman decides he wants to start using the shares he owns to attempt to influence content, etc. at these companies.

Other than that, it's just normal, run of the mill, capitalist investment.

Bingo, or to prove [insert political party here] to be proven worthy of development.

 

[SG854]

Depends, I wouldn’t expect a minority stakeholder alone to have too much influence, subject to any specific deals similar to Netease having a seat on the board of directors at Bungie.

What we can best hope for is that they’re just investing for financial reasons...notice how all 3 of the companies like microtransactions, loot boxes, annual sequels, etc.

Subject to any government interference, investing in these companies seems like a relatively safe bet.

Yeah right look at Hollywood movies and their censorship of anything related to China

 

[tech3475]

Yeah right look at Hollywood movies and their censorship of anything related to China

From what I've heard, Chinese money has played a bigger part both in terms of financing and desperation to get approved for release in Chinese theatres given the way they restrict foreign films.

I'm not saying it can't happen, just what we can hope for based on the stake(s).

 

[Julie_Pilgrim]

Titanfall and NFS Most Wanted remake were quite good, just to name a few

They've also improved the battlefront 2 remake a lot

 

[CTR640]

Welp, it looks like Saudi Arabia found a new spot to get oil so moar muni to throw away!

 

[SG854]

Gotta get that Arab Money

I like how Saudi Arabia is only seen for its Oil. Thats it's only identity now. Nothing else, only Oil.

 

[CMDreamer]

Am I the only one a little blown away that a BILLION dollars buys only 2-3% percent of any one of these three companies? Jesus.

Don't be, 1 billion means only 1,000 millions (1,000,000,000 millions) for US people. While 1 billion for most of us means 1,000,000 millions (1,000,000,000,000 millions) aka, one million of millions.

Eh, it could be worse, it could be China. I know Saudi Arabia is pretty awful, but it's much better than China.

It could be worse and we would get only crap remakes/remasters/re-whatever games... hold on... that's precisely what most "high-end" consoles get nowadays! Oh, nevermind.

Their fear has no foundation, they are afraid of losing their control over game development companies as they would lose their sh**ty business model.

 

[ChaosEternal]

Wait, Riot canceled a partnership with Saudia Arabia, ostensibly over human rights, while being owned by the Chinese? In what world does THAT make sense? If they actually gave a single shit about human rights, they wouldn't be owned by Tencent in the first place.

 

[pedro702]

Buying EA games that were released after 2011 is already a minor felony to begin with.
Dragon Age: Inquisition is the only acceptable exception.

yeah because
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order or Star Wars: Squadrons were bad games...

both of them made by EA and have amazing critical and public reception, seriously saying games are bad because of publishers instead of being because the game itself is just sad.

 

[HarveyHouston]

Is this what we want? Is Saudi Arabia our friend? Should we trust a guy named Mohammed? Should we be concerned that these U.S. companies are being invested in by those outside of the country? Is this the work of the powers-that-be in the government? Are we gonna have to wear turbans, now?!?

So many questions, so little answers. While I appreciate what comes out of these three companies, I am a little concerned about who invests, and what might be the result of such.

 

[Axido]

yeah because
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order or Star Wars: Squadrons were bad games...

both of them made by EA and have amazing critical and public reception, seriously saying games are bad because of publishers instead of being because the game itself is just sad.

They were made by Respawn Entertainment and Motive Studios respectively. EA doesn't make games. They buy studios, impose microtransactions on otherwise acceptable games and shut down studios that used to produce great games. And since EA almost lost the rights to Star Wars, you'd expect them to once in a while publish better games of that franchise. The more interesting question would be how many memorable Star Wars games we had been missing out on if EA hadn't had the rights to produce Star Wars games for the last decade.

 

[AboodXD]

Is this what we want? Is Saudi Arabia our friend? Should we trust a guy named Mohammed? Should we be concerned that these U.S. companies are being invested in by those outside of the country? Is this the work of the powers-that-be in the government? Are we gonna have to wear turbans, now?!?

Modern times need modern jokes and this is not one.