The Saudi wealth fund owned Savvy Games Group has acquired US-based game developer Scopely for $4.9bn in their latest gaming investment.
The acquisition was announced on Wednesday is still waiting for regulatory approval. Savvy, which is owned by the sovereign Public Investment Fund and chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salaman, has a war chest of more than $30bn.
The country has set out a target to become one of the world’s main gaming hubs, with the industry expected to contribute 1% to its gross domestic product by 2030. While trying to reduce its reliance on oil revenues, investing in everything from electric-vehicle production to tourism, this is their third major investment this year in the gaming world.
They acquired esports platform Vindex and a stake in esports agency VSPO. The LA-based Scopely was founded in 2011 and publishes free-to-play, social games such as Yahtzee With Buddies, Stumble Guys and Marvel Strike Force.
Saudi Arabia’s gaming strategy is led by the $600bn Public Investment Fund and has invested heavily in gaming equities, including a 5% stake in Nintendo and about $3bn in US gaming companies such as Activision Blizzard.
In an interview in February, the head of the Saudi Esports Federation said the majority of Saudi’s identified as gamers, “ Seventy per cent of the country is under the age of 35 and 68 per cent of the country consider themselves games. The major aim in everything we’re doing is how we become an addictive part of the global industry.”
PIF has also in recent years, purchased stakes in Ubisoft, EA, Take Two, Nintendo and Activision. Scopely was their first all-out attempt into the gaming world. “This is their first big step into mobile gaming, as part of their broader strategy laid out a year ago. Gaming in the Middle East is really big, they want to own potential upside from that – they want to own the large player base in the Middle East and bring jobs and awareness.”
