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[Axios] Saudi Arabia to invest $37 billion in gaming

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It's going to be Embracer isn't it?

I hope it's "just" Embracer, TBH. I'm already a bit at unease with them funding SNK, we'll have to see how that plays out over the long term, but if they go and buy Capcom, Sega, Square-Enix or Bandai-Namco, my enthusiasm for any of those company's long-term outlook will drop sharply.

As well, I'd definitely see any of those happening as a sign that Sony aren't serious about securing certain valued legacy or their future as a platform holder, as they should be. Most of PS1 & PS2's identity were built off the games of those companies (and Konami). They're a part of PlayStation's roots, you don't just...NOT try locking things down with them if you see how certain leaves are falling.

Guess we'll see how it all shakes out, I guess.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
I just had a thought... ok hear me out, since it's a bit out there.

Maybe.... just maybe, this is really about the predominantly Islamic Saudis being concerned about the more extreme western woke ideology and its encroachment into the gaming medium. Maybe they're doing this to ensure that the games Saudi kids love to play are isolated from the more extreme ideological propaganda that's started to infect gaming.

Maybe they're looking at what is going on in Iran and are scared and don't want strong western ideals influencing the minds of their younger generations. So they buy their way into the market and start producing their own home-grown content to ensure that at least one major entertainment medium is insulated from the western woke activists.

I could definitely see that.
Arabs have been investing in western ventures for a while. A lot of big soccer clubs are owned by them now. They are typically from UAE, Qatar and Kuwait, it's simply Saudi Arabia's turn. MBS is probably a nerd and is simply investing in things he's interested in.

That said, it's definitely possible that they are doing it to spread their version of Islam/morality. They have been doing it for nearly 5 decades across the muslim world. I just believe that they care more about money at this point than any kind of moral venture.
 

MScarpa

Member
This is what happens when its not purchased by MS or Sony. You keep fighting with each other and this is what will happen 😂
 
Ligue 1 What GIF by Paris Saint-Germain
 

Chukhopops

Member
Just so everyone remembers: Microsoft enabled this. They're the ones who reinvigorated this trend of buying massive publishers (yes Sony did buy Psygnosis back in the '90s but that was a much smaller publisher in general, and Sony were just entering the market as a platform holder plus Psygnosis helped developed the PS1 devkits in particular), saying they (or certain fans claiming they) were doing it to "protect" the industry from large outsiders buying everything and destabilizing the core of the industry.

Well, Microsoft just ironically manifested the thing they were "worried" about, by doing what they claimed other companies were going to do. It was a pretty clever tactic in a way, but now we're starting to see what a precedent is being set. In the grand scheme of things, the Saudis shouldn't have much more trouble acquiring this publisher than Microsoft is having with ABK. Maybe Apple can sweep in and buy another giant publisher or two. Netflix is probably entertaining the option now, as is Amazon. Maybe Google decides to step in again with a relaunch of Stadia paired with a publisher acquisition, and Tencent not far after. And of course you'll have Sony trying to get their own (other) publisher or two.

Microsoft have effectively given the green light to kick off rampant industry consolidation at the largest scale. This is their doing, don't go forgetting it.
It’s true, there was no consolidation or acquisition before MS bought Bethesda.

Aside of course from all the ones which actually happened during that time as a result of EA, Activision, THQ/Embracer gobbling plenty of studios and publishers like Maxis or Codemasters. And also the huge mergers like Activision with Blizzard. And smaller things like Facebook buying Ready at Dawn or others to turn into VR studios.

Aside from those dozens of examples there has been no consolidation, it’s only a MS thing.
 
I hope it's "just" Embracer, TBH. I'm already a bit at unease with them funding SNK, we'll have to see how that plays out over the long term, but if they go and buy Capcom, Sega, Square-Enix or Bandai-Namco, my enthusiasm for any of those company's long-term outlook will drop sharply.

As well, I'd definitely see any of those happening as a sign that Sony aren't serious about securing certain valued legacy or their future as a platform holder, as they should be. Most of PS1 & PS2's identity were built off the games of those companies (and Konami). They're a part of PlayStation's roots, you don't just...NOT try locking things down with them if you see how certain leaves are falling.

Guess we'll see how it all shakes out, I guess.

This 100%. I don't care if Sony doesn't outright buy these companies. I at least want them to invest in them enough to where they cannot be pulled away from the platform.
 
Just so everyone remembers: Microsoft enabled this. They're the ones who reinvigorated this trend of buying massive publishers (yes Sony did buy Psygnosis back in the '90s but that was a much smaller publisher in general, and Sony were just entering the market as a platform holder plus Psygnosis helped developed the PS1 devkits in particular), saying they (or certain fans claiming they) were doing it to "protect" the industry from large outsiders buying everything and destabilizing the core of the industry.

Well, Microsoft just ironically manifested the thing they were "worried" about, by doing what they claimed other companies were going to do. It was a pretty clever tactic in a way, but now we're starting to see what a precedent is being set. In the grand scheme of things, the Saudis shouldn't have much more trouble acquiring this publisher than Microsoft is having with ABK. Maybe Apple can sweep in and buy another giant publisher or two. Netflix is probably entertaining the option now, as is Amazon. Maybe Google decides to step in again with a relaunch of Stadia paired with a publisher acquisition, and Tencent not far after. And of course you'll have Sony trying to get their own (other) publisher or two.

Microsoft have effectively given the green light to kick off rampant industry consolidation at the largest scale. This is their doing, don't go forgetting it.

The worst practices in this industry have been brought by MS themselves and many of those are simply normalized nowadays and we don't talk about them: Paying for online play...something that was free before they did it, exclusive DLCs...which others started to do as well after MS, etc.

This industry will look much worse in 10 years...the truth is this: EA, Ubisoft, Take Two will end up with bigger companies. The day MS bought Bethesda changed the game. If this Activision deal goes through...it'll be a mess after that. It's clear Sony is "quiet" because of that, since they don't want to get bigger in an industry they already are the market leaders. And MS can't acquire anything big while this acquisition doesn't happen for them as well since it wouldn't be good for their situation.

Sony still has like $14b to spend on investments like these from March 2022 until March 2024 (i think the numbers are right)...clearly they aren't spending anything now for a reason.

I've always played on Playstation but the fact is, if Sony buys say, Square-Enix...Nintendo loses quite a lot. It's simply one of the biggest JRPGs machines in Japan. If Sony buys Capcom? Xbox loses the most. FromSoftware? (which they own 14% already) everyone loses if they buy them.

The truth is i'm lucky for now...both publishers MS has acquired are companies i don't own a single game. I'm dreading the day they go for something i care about, lmao.
 

anthony2690

Member
If they buy Sqaure Enix the games might actually come to Xbox, rather than SE pulling a ticket from a hat to decide if the games will come or not.
 

AmuroChan

Member
I think they can, but I think USA will intervene as it's a national security redline that can't be crossed, just like Japan.

Not sure about that. Chinese money has infiltrated every part of the US economy, including at the highest level of government. US is much easier to infiltrate by foreign money than Japan is.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Just so everyone remembers: Microsoft enabled this.

No they didn't, but please don't let that stop you from the usual paragraphs long tirade like many other topics :rolleyes:

It’s true, there was no consolidation or acquisition before MS bought Bethesda.

Aside of course from all the ones which actually happened during that time as a result of EA, Activision, THQ/Embracer gobbling plenty of studios and publishers like Maxis or Codemasters. And also the huge mergers like Activision with Blizzard. And smaller things like Facebook buying Ready at Dawn or others to turn into VR studios.

Aside from those dozens of examples there has been no consolidation, it’s only a MS thing.


MS also stole their girlfriend in middle school, don't forget that.
 
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Look at some of the post's here and see how the media reacts

Non of them know anything other than what the state owned Media tell them

Ask anyone who lives here and see what he says about the country

Well there's a lot of videos on Youtube for that and I've seen some; it doesn't seem bad for those folks considering they are still choosing to stay there.

I know there are racists in Japan just like in every country on Earth, but there are also a lot of Japanese who simply don't have any experience or interactions with other types of people and that in itself doesn't make you a racist. I know there are certain clubs there for example you can't enter if you're not Japanese, but most of those are seedy happy-hour massage parlors controlled by Yakuza, of course they would be control freaks about it like that. They don't want dirty secrets to spread beyond the local area and letting foreigners work there would greatly increase the chance those secrets get exposed at large.

That's maybe more a xenophobic thing but, main point being some people of a group being racist doesn't mean most of them are, so why generalize?
 

Jen_yakzua

Member
Just so everyone remembers: Microsoft enabled this. They're the ones who reinvigorated this trend of buying massive publishers (yes Sony did buy Psygnosis back in the '90s but that was a much smaller publisher in general, and Sony were just entering the market as a platform holder plus Psygnosis helped developed the PS1 devkits in particular), saying they (or certain fans claiming they) were doing it to "protect" the industry from large outsiders buying everything and destabilizing the core of the industry.

Well, Microsoft just ironically manifested the thing they were "worried" about, by doing what they claimed other companies were going to do. It was a pretty clever tactic in a way, but now we're starting to see what a precedent is being set. In the grand scheme of things, the Saudis shouldn't have much more trouble acquiring this publisher than Microsoft is having with ABK. Maybe Apple can sweep in and buy another giant publisher or two. Netflix is probably entertaining the option now, as is Amazon. Maybe Google decides to step in again with a relaunch of Stadia paired with a publisher acquisition, and Tencent not far after. And of course you'll have Sony trying to get their own (other) publisher or two.

Microsoft have effectively given the green light to kick off rampant industry consolidation at the largest scale. This is their doing, don't go forgetting it.
1000% that was my only gripe with the deal ,of them telling people to be scared of Godzilla coming out of the ocean while building the device thats gonna bring him from the ocean
 
That or one of the Princes is bored and wants to own a gaming company to make games, like they did with English Footy a while back

It's what I think is really going on.

Well, that and their country trying to diversify away from oil.

Please buy capcom /sega/ SE, i want the games to stay multiplatform

See how far we've fallen, that we have to beg the fricken human-rights abusing Saudis to buy our gaming companies for them to maintain their ability to keep making MP games.

It's part of their strategy to diversify investments away from oil.

They are in it for the cash and the cash alone in a lot of cases. They have very much been hands off silent investors for a lot of their ventures in recent years.

Thanks. I think you're probably very likely correct.

Cya Ubisoft

For 13B only???? No chance!
 

John Wick

Member
Not seeing how it's the same as that analogy at all.

Firstly, I'm not sure how you don't realise this, but MS does much more than Xbox.

Secondly, if you read the article, they're buying a whole publisher, plus other devs studios with a view to creating new homegrown studios and games.

This is more than just an investment. It's about getting into a new market to try to become a major player in that market.

Here's to hoping this doesn't lead to state-funded censorship of publisher games, or even worse, a future Saudi-backed console that they force their purchased publisher to make all their games exclusive to.
You need to calm down mate.. They are investing to make profit. They can't just rely on oil so they are diversifying. It makes sense.
 

lukilladog

Member
Good job this will wash the barbaric crime against humanity and will bring all the innocent souls back

That is too much of a negative mindset, and while we cannot bring back the so called "souls" lost to violence, we can learn from the mistakes of the past. Progress is not achieved by traditionalists, autocrats, nor preachers of morals. Nor by accident or chance, but by pure work (Epictetus). Pinker is right when he says that peace used to be a mere interlude between war:

 
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1000% that was my only gripe with the deal ,of them telling people to be scared of Godzilla coming out of the ocean while building the device thats gonna bring him from the ocean

That's a pretty good and simple analogy to use for it, actually.

Please buy Nintendo.

The dichotomy between what Nintendo markets, and the troubled nature of their new owners, would cause the biggest mindfucks in history.
 
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No they didn't, but please don't let that stop you from the usual paragraphs long tirade like many other topics :rolleyes:

Yeah they did. What other platform holder bought as many developers in as short a span of time over the past 10 years, as Microsoft? You can arguably say Embracer Group, but they aren't a platform holder; they're in investment firm. There's a big difference, plus the devs they've purchased have been rather small or on serious decline. Same goes with them acquiring THQ; THQ was practically dead by the time Embracer bought them.

You don't think Apple, Google, Amazon, Tencent, Sony etc. are looking at how this ABK acquisition plays out and planning on using it AND Microsoft buying Zenimax as leverage for getting their own massive acquisitions done in the future? Nvidia might be looking at it too as grounds to use in trying for ARM again. Saudi Arabian princes are looking at this MS/ABK thing and going "well if they can buy ABK, we can buy some game publishers, too!".

If we see that influx of multiple big game publishers being purchased start happening in short order, we're going to be able to point to Microsoft buying Zenimax & ABK in the span of two years as the events that enabled it to happen. You just don't want to accept the reality that fingers will point to Microsoft for setting off the trend, if and when it happens.
 
It’s true, there was no consolidation or acquisition before MS bought Bethesda.

Aside of course from all the ones which actually happened during that time as a result of EA, Activision, THQ/Embracer gobbling plenty of studios and publishers like Maxis or Codemasters. And also the huge mergers like Activision with Blizzard. And smaller things like Facebook buying Ready at Dawn or others to turn into VR studios.

Aside from those dozens of examples there has been no consolidation, it’s only a MS thing.

This is basically a whataboutism. EA, Activision, THQ/Embracer are NOT platform holders. They are publishers (and an investment firm, in Embracer's case). They may have "gobbled" up independent developers but those companies are still themselves independent 3P publishers who would otherwise want the status quo in terms of how the console market operates, to stay intact, because that benefits THEM.

They don't also have console hardware AND a subscription service vertically integrated into their corporate structure, 100% under their control, where they can leverage those acquisitions to potentially strong-arm other publishers and platform holders within the market, and indirectly strong-arm customers in such a way as well. At most, EA has one of the two, a sub service, whose main home is on a very open platform with no traditional "closed garden" ecosystem (PC).

Facebook is a different example. They bought Ready at Dawn because Sony didn't want to commit to purchasing them. Sony could've bought them if they wanted, they simply weren't interested. Facebook was entering the market as a VR platform holder, it made sense for them to acquire smaller developer teams to shore up internal software for a new venture in a new market segment. They aren't an entrenched platform holder who's been in the industry for 20 years suddenly deciding the answer to "compete" is to consolidate massive 3P publishers into them.

So that is a big difference, and what Microsoft have set a precedent for is very different from the examples you listed.

This 100%. I don't care if Sony doesn't outright buy these companies. I at least want them to invest in them enough to where they cannot be pulled away from the platform.

Well, they are making investment into companies like Kadokawa, FromSoft etc. so things should come of that, and I think part of the reason they're making those investments are exactly for the reason you mention because realistically Sony doesn't have the type of money to compete head-on with these massive acquisitions the way Microsoft, or Apple or Amazon can, just as examples.

So if they can secure big shares or majority shares in multiple companies, they still have a lot of sway and input into content from those companies coming to their platforms. That's probably the best consolation prize they can net in all of this. I expect Nintendo to also start investing shares into more 3P publishers going forward because contrary to belief, they actually do rely a good deal on having at least semi-robust 3P support. Every console of theirs that's failed did so because of lack of decent 3P support; they know this.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Yes they did but obviously did anyone expect anything different from you?
Which company has bought any pubs/devs the size of Zenimax and now trying to buy AB?


Take Two bought Zynga for 12.7 Billion
Tencent bought 84% of Supercell for 9 Billion
Activision bought King for 6 Billion


Take a seat junior :messenger_blowing_kiss:
 
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This is what happens when its not purchased by MS or Sony. You keep fighting with each other and this is what will happen 😂

Unless the Saudi buyers somehow interfere with the nuts and bolts of development, it's a way better option compared to, let's say, MS acquiring the publisher and making its titles exclusive. But that's just me...
 

StueyDuck

Member
Tencent Vs Saudi the "Which human rights will go first in gaming" race is on.

Embracer group sneaking in at 3rd
 
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