The Esports World Cup Foundation announced this week that it has signed a three-year partnership deal with SNK, to bring its popular fighting game franchise, FATAL FURY to its annual multi-week esports competition, the Esports World Cup. For the 2025 Esports World Cup in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, SNK will bring FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves, the first entry in the fighting game series in 26 years—set to be released in April on multiple platforms.
FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves joins other games that will be part of the 2025 Esports World Cup including Chess.com, RENNSPORT, Crossfire, PUBG: Battlegrounds, Rocket League, Overwatch 2, EA FC 25, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, PUBG Mobile, Apex Legends, Rainbow Six Siege, Dota 2, Street Fighter 6, Free Fire, Honor of Kings, Counter-Strike 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, and Call of Duty Warzone.
“This partnership marks a historic milestone for FATAL FURY, a title loved around the world for 30 years, as it steps into the competitive gaming arena,” said Kenji Matsubara, CEO of SNK Corporation, in a release. “The Esports World Cup provides the perfect platform to showcase the franchise’s enduring legacy while engaging a new generation of fans, including those watching the great fights live in Riyadh arenas and on screens around the world.”
In case you are not familiar with it, the Esports World Cup is a multi-title, eight-week competition held on an annual basis during the summer that is managed by the Esports World Cup Foundation, a non-profit funded (it claims) by a sporting grant from the Saudi government’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund. The Esports World Cup is operated by ESL FACEIT Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of Saudi government owned gaming and esports company Savvy Games Group. EFG is home to a number of tournament organizers and broadcast production companies including DreamHack, ESL, FACEIT, and Esports Engine. FATAL FURY series developer and publisher SNK Corporation is also fully-owned by Savvy Games Group.
Projects backed or owned by the Saudi Arabian government such as Esports World Cup are frequently criticized for helping the government engage in what is called “sports washing,” or using various forms of sport and entertainment to cover up its record on human rights, women’s rights, LGTBQ+ rights, military actions in Yemen, and more. These and other criticisms are actively highlighted by international watchdog groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.