In a region long renowned for its oil wealth and ambitious infrastructure projects, a new kind of power play is taking shape—one that’s unfolding not in boardrooms or oil fields, but in the fast-evolving world of digital entertainment. As of October 6, 2025, Saudi Arabia and its Gulf neighbors are making headlines for their aggressive investments in gaming, logistics, and global finance, signaling a seismic shift in both economic strategy and cultural ambition.
Just this week, Blackstone and Lunate announced the launch of a $5 billion logistics platform, according to the Mideast Money newsletter. KKR, another private equity giant, deepened its footprint in Abu Dhabi, while Goldman Sachs and Carlyle are eyeing new deals in Kuwait. But it’s Saudi Arabia’s outsized push into digital entertainment and gaming that’s truly capturing the world’s attention—and raising as many questions as it answers.
Saudi Arabia’s gaming ambitions are nothing short of audacious. On September 29, 2025, Electronic Arts (EA)—America’s third-largest gaming company—was bought for a staggering $55 billion by a group led by the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), as reported by The Economist. The acquisition, which includes partners like Silver Lake and Affinity Partners (founded by Jared Kushner), puts franchises like “Madden,” “The Sims,” and “FC” (formerly “FIFA”) directly under Saudi influence. It’s a move that marks the Kingdom’s shift from passive investment to active ownership, granting it unprecedented sway over production pipelines, content development, and the future of major esports leagues tied to EA’s competitive titles.
This blockbuster deal is only the latest in a blitz of investments. The PIF has endowed Savvy Games Group with a $38 billion war chest—an amount that dwarfs all but the largest industry players. Savvy’s recent acquisitions include Scopely, whose mobile hit “Monopoly Go!” has raked in over $5 billion since its 2023 launch, and the gaming arm of Niantic, the company behind the phenomenally successful “Pokémon” mobile games. The PIF has also built up major stakes in industry titans like Nintendo, Capcom, Koei, Nexon, NCSoft, Take-Two, Toei, and Square Enix, positioning itself as one of the world’s most influential gaming investors.
“We’re just getting started,” says Brian Ward, the Canadian industry veteran at the helm of Savvy Games Group. His team, he adds, is exploring “hundreds” of potential acquisitions each year. The strategy, as gaming expert Joost van Dreunen writes, is to “throw staggering amounts of money at establishing market dominance.” With venture capital funding in gaming down by about three-quarters since its 2021-22 peak, Saudi Arabia’s deep pockets are giving it a unique edge in snapping up prized assets.
But why this massive bet on gaming? The answer lies in Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia’s sweeping national plan to diversify its economy away from oil. Gaming, once dismissed as a pastime, is now a central pillar of the country’s economic and cultural future. According to GameIndustry.com, the Savvy Games Group’s investments are designed not only to drive economic growth but also to engage youth, foster innovation, and project Saudi influence abroad. The government aims to create 39,000 jobs in gaming by 2030, with training programs at institutions like Princess Nourah University—where game artists are being cultivated, including a significant number of women. In fact, 48% of Saudi gamers are women, and around a quarter of Savvy’s staff are female, numbers that are reshaping the traditionally male-dominated industry.
Saudi Arabia is also transforming itself into a global esports powerhouse. For the past two years, Riyadh has hosted the Esports World Cup, drawing titles like “League of Legends,” “Dota 2,” and “Valorant” under one roof. The 2025 event sold 250,000 tickets and racked up 750 million streams online, with half the audience tuning in from China. The next big event, the Esports Nations Cup, is already planned for 2026. These tournaments are not just about spectacle—they’re designed to build a community of superfans, much like how Disney uses theme parks to deepen engagement. “You will never be able to satisfy all the critics, but the noise around it has dramatically gone down,” said Ralf Reichert, the organizer of the Esports World Cup, to The Economist.
Saudi influence is also starting to seep into the games themselves. Ubisoft, the French developer behind the famed “Assassin’s Creed” franchise, recently announced a new set of missions set in Al Ula, a historic Saudi city that the government is keen to promote as a tourist destination. These Saudi-themed levels are being developed with help from “local and international organisations,” according to Ubisoft. Meanwhile, the latest edition of the fighting game “Fatal Fury” features Cristiano Ronaldo—a star who now captains Riyadh’s Al Nassr FC, a team majority-owned by the PIF. The Japanese developer SNK, which created “Fatal Fury,” is itself majority-owned by the MiSK Foundation, a Saudi non-profit chaired by Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman.
As Saudi Arabia’s presence in gaming grows, so too do questions about creative freedom, censorship, and the use of gaming for soft power. Critics warn that, much like Hollywood’s recent caution around topics sensitive to the Chinese market, game developers may begin to self-censor to avoid controversy with their new Saudi backers. Andrew Wilson, EA’s CEO, has sought to reassure staff, stating that the company’s “values…remain unchanged” and that EA will continue to prioritize “bold, expressive” content.
For many, this is a double-edged sword. The influx of Saudi capital is fueling ambitious projects, job creation, and rapid technological development. Yet, as GameIndustry.com points out, there are also concerns about censorship, surveillance, and the use of gaming as a tool for ideological influence—a phenomenon some critics label “sportswashing.” The Kingdom’s efforts to project a modern, dynamic image through entertainment and sport, including film festivals and a Formula One Grand Prix, are part of a broader campaign to reshape global perceptions.
Still, the scale and speed of Saudi Arabia’s transformation into a gaming superpower are hard to ignore. With 330 million Arabic-speaking gamers—more than in Western Europe or the U.S.—the region is ripe for the kind of cultural export that has propelled Japanese, Chinese, and South Korean games to global prominence. “There’s five to ten thousand years of human history in the Middle East, but none of those stories have been told in our medium. And that’s a huge opportunity,” says Brian Ward. While he insists that projecting Saudi culture is not his explicit mandate, Ward hopes that future Saudi-made games will have worldwide appeal, just as East Asian titles have.
Whether Saudi Arabia becomes a benevolent patron or a controlling force in the gaming world remains to be seen. What’s certain is that the Kingdom’s high-stakes gamble on digital entertainment is redrawing the global map of influence—and all eyes are watching as it plays its next hand.
