An organization representing Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, has purchased a majority stake in the fan-favorite Japanese game developer SNK. SNK is responsible for some of gaming's most beloved intellectual properties of the '90s, such as The King of Fighters and many others.
As a company, SNK has been through many ups and downs over the years. Despite its admired franchises and dedicated fans, the brand was financially unstable for over 15 years before it was completely bought out by a major Chinese holdings firm in 2016. Since then, SNK has refocused on developing games (rather than the slot machines it was focused on before) and has released new entries in some of its most popular series. The King of Fighters XIV and the 2019 rendition of Samurai Shodown performed relatively well for the company, and The King of Fighters XV is supposedly on the way. Still, SNK hasn't exactly become a household name - but it seems another major investor is hoping to change that.
As reported by GamesIndustry.biz, the Mohammed bin Salman Charity Foundation is set to buy a 51 percent stake in SNK. The "Electronic Games Development Company," a subsidiary of the foundation, has already invested around 813 million riyals ($223 million) in SNK. This gives it a 33.3 percent share in the company at present with an agreement to buy another 17.7 percent of shares in the future, bringing its stake to 51 percent and valuing SNK at roughly $670 million.
SNK's share price has jumped on the Korean stock exchange KOSDAQ as a result of the investment, rising by 30 percent to 16,500 Korean won ($14.93). Of course, Mohammed bin Salman is the biggest stakeholder in the Charity Foundation, meaning the investment was almost certainly his. It lines up with the foundation's goal as part of bin Salman's "Saudi Vision 2030" plan, which aims to diversify the Saudi economy beyond oil exportation and into other sources of capital - like the video game industry, for example.
On the one hand, an investment like this could be a real boon for SNK and is highly unlikely to impact the creative development of their actual games. On the other hand, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia is a very controversial figure for a number of serious reasons, and fans would be fairly justified in their disdain for his involvement with one of their favorite developers. Time will tell if this ends the same way that Riot Games' dealings with Saudi Arabia have in the past.
Source: GamesIndustry.biz