Japan’s SNK (which has undergone several restructurings since the 1990s, hence its former name SNK Playmore, for example) is now almost entirely owned by the foundation of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

In November 2020, the Electronic Gaming Development Company (EGDC), owned by the Mohammed bin Salman Foundation (henceforth known as MiSK Foundation), bought 33.3% of SNK’s shares. It was reported in the Saudi press as a strategic investment. Still, it also highlighted that they would like to see MiSK Foundation become a majority shareholder in time (as they have set a target to own 51% of the shares).

Well, the MiSK Foundation now owns about 96.2% of SNK, which had worldwide success with Fatal Fury, The King of Fighters (the fifteenth instalment of which was recently released) and Metal Slug in the 1990s, but which did not achieve the same success with their desktop console, Neo Geo, which promised 100% accurate arcade ports. We did not make this up, as the official press release from the Foundation confirms it. Let us quote what it says:

“The Mohammed bin Salman Foundation’s (MiSK Foundation) investment in the Japanese company SNK reinforces its continuous commitment to its goals of empowering Saudi men and women through building economic partnerships within the Foundation’s updated strategy to maximize the positive impact on youth empowerment. The investment decision will also enhance SNK’s strong capabilities, which have many innovative intellectual properties in the gaming sector with real potential for development\ [sic] in the future in line with anticipated growth in the electronic gaming industry.”

Saudi Arabia has not only invested in SNK. Back in early February, Bloomberg reported that the kingdom’s public interest fund, PIF, had bought more than five per cent stakes in Capcom and Nexon. Adding up the value of each of their investments would be worth more than $1 billion. Still, PIF has already spent $3.3 billion on stakes in Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts and Take-Two in the last quarter of 2020, Al Jazeera reports.

And after all of this, did Jim Ryan, Sony Interactive Entertainment’s president and CEO, have the nerve to say in October that people in the Middle East didn’t play games before PlayStation…?

Source: WCCFTech