Saudi’s PIF to Move Game Investments to Savvy Games Group

Public Investment Fund game investments to be moved to Savvy Games Group. Image Credit: Savvy Games Group

The Saudi Arabian government’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), will move its video game-related investments under the control of its wholly owned gaming and esports company, Savvy Games Group, according to a recent Nikkei Asia report. A Savvy Games Group representative told the publication Sunday that it will take these steps sometime in early 2025. 

In a nutshell, all of the PIF’s game-related investments will be moved to Savvy, and the company will oversee the government’s future investments in the esports and gaming industries going forward. Savvy Games recently claimed in its 2023 annual report that it has a 40% hold in the global esports industry. 

In June, HRH Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud told Nikkei Asia that the company would improve its bonds with Japanese game developers and publishers such as Nintendo and Capcom, in a move to drive collaboration and localization of intellectual property:

“One of the main areas is how do we collaborate on localization products, and help Japanese intellectual properties grow in a region that right now is underserved because very little is localized,” Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud, vice chair of Savvy Games Group, told Nikkei Asia.

Savvy Games Group currently owns and oversees Scopely (the developer of the successful mobile game Monopoly: GO), game developer Steer Studios, gaming infrastructure company Nine66, community competition company VOV, and its tournament and gaming festival operation ESL FACEIT Group. ESL FACEIT Group owns tournament organizer ESL, competitive gaming platform FACEIT, gaming and esports festival company DreamHack, and esports production company Esports Engine. ESL FACEIT Group helped with the production of the recently concluded Esports World Cup, an eight-week esports competition held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, that featured 21 different games and a total prize pool of $60M USD.

The Public Investment Fund currently owns a controlling stake in Japanese game developer SNK, 8.6% in Nintendo, 6.6% in Capcom, and minority stakes in companies such as Microsoft (it owned a stake in Activision Blizzard prior to the company’s acquisition by Microsoft), Take-Two Interactive, and Electronic Arts, among others.

Its investments in gaming, sports, and entertainment are part of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, a plan to diversify its revenue and move away from being solely dependent on revenue from oil.  These investments, the government hopes, will create new streams of revenue from technology, entertainment, sports, gaming, and tourism, and in turn, drive substantial job growth within the country.

Critics of the Saudi Arabian government see these investments in gaming, esports, sports, entertainment, etc., as a means to “wash” its reputation on a global basis, for its human rights violations against its own citizens, mistreatment of political prisoners (women, critics, journalists),  its treatment of foreign workers (as depicted in the film, Aadujeevitham – The Goat Life), and military actions in Yemen, among other things.