Saudi Arabia To Invest $37 Billion in Gaming (axios.com) 41
Saudi Arabia's government-funded gaming conglomerate The Savvy Gaming Group will invest $37.8 billion in gaming as part of a controversial effort to expand the kingdom's role in the sector. From a report: Savvy is primed to buy up a lot of gaming companies and start many of its own. Savvy has earmarked more than $13 billion "for the acquisition and development of a leading game publisher to become a strategic development partner," according to the kingdom's press agency. Another $18 billion is pegged for minority investments. Savvy's efforts are expected to establish 250 game companies and create 39,000 jobs, the press agency noted. The investments are announced by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
You only have 40 years of catching up to do... (Score:1)
Re: You only have 40 years of catching up to do... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re: You only have 40 years of catching up to do... (Score:4, Informative)
That's right. The first mission would involve kidnapping and beheading your political critics.
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Re: You only have 40 years of catching up to do.. (Score:2)
beating women for dress code violations
Maybe they can acquire the GTA franchise. You know, that game where you beat women for dress code violations (short skirts, crop-tops, etc).
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The article doesn't say that they're hoping to develop games in Saudi Arabia, but rather buy or invest in companies already making games elsewhere. I think their goal is to be like Tencent and own a whole bunch of game companies around the world.
Can their culture handle diversity? (Score:3)
it's going to be a bitch to grow a gaming culture from a locked down religious society on welfare.
I assume they're hoping to export games, not just consume them. It sounds like a VC venture from the article and some efforts to bootstrap a few local studios. I think they want jobs and to host eSports (a phenomenon I definitely don't understand but am told by passionate fans is super super super important).
It's laudable that they realize that your future is limited pumping liquid dinosaur corpse out of the ground and want to diversify your economy and do a jobs program. I am not too excited because
On further reflection... (Score:2)
Not to mention all the benefits they failed to exploit by CLEARLY never having been exposed to SimCity. [youtube.com]
Geeze they are desparate (Score:3)
(And then slashdotters complain when VC's invest in fusion? It least it would be great if it works!)
Marketers turning the language to mush (Score:5, Interesting)
I had to go to the article to confirm that this was about video games and not gambling, which has taken to calling itself "gaming" because it sounds so much more harmless.
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I assumed that it was about gambling, until reading a little bit, because that use of the word "gaming" [etymonline.com] has been around a lot longer than video games:
gaming (n.)
c. 1500, "gambling," verbal noun from game (v.). From 1980s in reference to video and computer games. Gaming-house is from 1620s; gaming-table from 1590s.
MBS is a Gamer (Score:2)
The crown prince (and defacto King) may be a total monster of a human being, but he is actually known to be a gamer. It's not totally shocking that he'd want to spend some fraction of his obscene wealth on making his own games.
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I'd contend that the higher you go up the political ladder, the more "making his own" becomes the "royal his".
Well, I guess... (Score:2)
The long sought-after correlation between video games and sociopathy finally rears its ugly head.
Apparently it's not the teens in trench coats but men in thawbs they should have been looking for all this time.
Re: MBS is a Gamer (Score:2)
possible new titles? (Score:1)
liv golf live arcade (Score:2)
liv golf live arcade
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For me it's "Information Control" where you run around with a bone saw killing Journalists.
Metaverse (Score:2)
Games? Not the Metaverse?
A Game to stroke off the heads of infidels (Score:2)
Abomination (Score:3)
The Quran states that games of chance are a "grave sin" and "abominations of Satan's handiwork".
So the leader of an Islamic state decides to give billions to assist "Satan's handiwork".
No hypocrisy there... no none at all. Pass the glowing orb...
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The Vatican has on multiple occasions invested in birth control manufacturers.
They prefer to call it "Christian Rock".
Games of chance (Score:3)
Uh, not all computer games are "games of chance". Some are very determinalistic.
The Quran also forbids the charging of interest, of taking interest bearing loans and such. Instead, they do fancy things where the bank helps you buy your house, becoming a part owner, where each month you pay the bank rent for the portion of the house that it owns, and buy a portion of the house for yourself. Oddly enough, the rent payment works out to the common interest rates...
Anyways, sports are commonly considered dete
So at least no stereotypical Islamic bad guys (Score:3)
All kidding aside, I'm sort of curious how women will be included as characters. Maybe they'll play tech support roles? Will they just be ignored?
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They ignore women until they say something like "I want to drive a car without a chaperone" then they put them in jail.
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They could target Western in-cels by creating games where they get to imagine having muslim-like power over women.
Awesome! (Score:2)
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The Bone-Saw Game (Score:2)
It will be a hit.
I'm confused. (Score:1)
Are they buying up Google Stadia? (Score:4, Informative)
I heard it was up for a bargain.