🔥 Saudi Arabia is quietly buying mobile gaming
And it feels like nobody is really talking about it...
Let's take a quick look...
Savvy Games Group (Saudi PIF) acquires Scopely in 2023
Scopely then buys Niantic, Inc.'s entire games portfolio — Pokémon GO included for $3.5B!
PIF leads a $55B consortium to take Electronic Arts (EA) private (shareholders voted yes in December)
Now Savvy is in advanced talks to buy MOONTON GAMES (Mobile Legends) from ByteDance for $6-7B
These are not passive minority stakes, this is vertical ownership of the entire mobile gaming stack.
Publishers, IP, Live ops engines, Esports infrastructure, the lot!
All flowing toward a single sovereign wealth fund
The most powerful publisher in mobile gaming right now might be a nation state
Not a startup or PE firm
Instead a government with a $925B fund and a 30 year plan
Here's an interesting questions to ponder on....
What happens to platform economics when one buyer controls this much mobile IP?