Artisan, which you may know from Astria Ascending or Super Neptunia RPG, has signed an agreement with the country’s Ministry of Investment.

A new studio will open in Saudi Arabia to create the country’s first AAA games. (Unearthed: Trail of Ibn Battuta – Episode 1, which could be called an Uncharted rip-off, to put it mildly, is not. Oh, and it was developed by a Saudi Arabian studio, Semaphore!) The deal is to open the largest foreign-owned studio in the kingdom. It will have offices in Riyadh and employ over 200 people. The best talent from the Middle East and North Africa will work here, according to the announcement, which also says that the first AAA console titles from the GCC (Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, UAE) will be created here.

Artisan believes that this new studio will help them expand their international presence, making them the first independent console game developer in the Middle East, North Africa (MENA) region. The team plans to work with local artists in the region to create new IPs and export them to the rest of the world. “Riyadh has one of the most vibrant and exciting independent game development communities. After spending the last two years exploring the region, we knew it would be the best place to build a new studio. The support we have received from the Ministry has been world-class and they have made us feel very welcome in the Kingdom. We are honored to be the first developer invited to set up shop in Riyadh and look forward to creating amazing new games together,” said Mario Rizzo, CEO of Artisan.

Artisan already has studios in France and Canada, and the Saudi toy industry is expanding through the Public Investment Fund (PIF). They own SNK, have a stake of around 9% in Electronic Arts and 8.26% in Nintendo, but have also invested in Take-Two and Activision Blizzard in the past…

Source: VGC