(Yonhap Interview) Saudi’s Savvy Games Group to expand cooperation with S. Korea to become global game hub

Saudi Arabian games and esports company Savvy Games Group will expand cooperation with South Korea, an international hub for games and esports, to become a global leader in the industry, its top executives said Wednesday. HRH Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud, the vice chairman of the company, and Brian Ward, its CEO, shared their vision of expanding ties with South Korea in an interview with Yonhap News Agency in Seoul, noting they discussed cooperation with the leaderships of five major South Korean companies during their visit. Wholly owned by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), Savvy, founded in 2021, is chaired by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and aims to foster Riyadh's game industry as part of the country's wider Vision 2030 policy vision. Savvy met with Nexon, NC Soft, Krafton and Smilegate on Tuesday and also held a meeting with Netmarble on Wednesday. South Korea is one of the "birthplaces" of gaming and e-sports, Prince Faisal said, explaining that Saudi Arabia used Seoul as a reference "target state" in building its own industry. The prince said the Middle East has emerged as one of the fastest-growing markets in gaming, noting that roughly 288 million people in 22 countries in the region consider themselves gamers. "And they all speak one language, so when you can open that door, you can really start to grow your audience," he said. Savvy recommended South Korean companies focus on "localization" to successfully target the Middle Eastern audience, noting that the region as a market has been underrepresented. "When you watch a movie, you're watching someone do something, but when you play a game, you're doing it yourself ... So as a cultural export, there's nothing like games," Prince Faisal said, calling on Korean companies to have "boots on the ground" in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia will host the inaugural Esports World Cup in Riyadh from July 3 to Aug. 25, opening tournaments for 19 different games, including Riot Games' League of Legends and PUBG: Battlegroun ds, developed by Korean game developer Krafton. The annual event has a combined prize pool of over US$60 million, the biggest in esports history. Prince Faisal, who also heads the International Esports Federation, also said the global esports industry is making efforts to help games be recognized as a bona fide sport category after International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach recently said the first edition of Olympic Esports Games may be held in 2025 or 2026. "We've seen a big push toward the standardization (of games) as a sport," he said. Asked about future investment plans in South Korea, CEO Ward said Savvy is actively looking for teams that develop or have the potential to develop genre-leading games or breakout hit titles. He advised Korean game companies, which have been struggling in publishing smash titles in recent years, to focus more on "data" and "analytics" and push for active acquisitions. "It is very rare to have a single company or a single developer have more than one hit tit le or one genre they focus on," Ward said, explaining that games have become a more "hit-driven" industry in light of soaring production and development costs. Ward also noted Savvy intends to manage investments made by Saudi's PIF in Korean companies over the next year or so. The PIF is currently the second-largest shareholder in NC Soft and the fourth-largest in Nexon. Source: Yonhap News Agency