Saudi Takes Over The Gaming Space
By Shikha Singh
South Arabia’s Ministry of Investment has signed an initial agreement with South Korean video game developer Wemade to promote the development of the kingdom’s gaming and blockchain industries. Wemade Co., Ltd is a South Korean video game developer Legend of Mir 2, Legend of Mir 3, Master of Fantasy and Chang Chun. Founded in 2000, Wemade is behind the blockchain gaming platform Wemix and the Legend of Mir series video games that have attracted millions of users globally.
Wemade signed the agreement after attending the Saudi-Korea Investment Forum in Seoul in November, where it met with Saudi Investment Minister Khalid Al-Falih and other Saudi officials.
According to a recent YouGov study, the gaming industry in Saudi Arabia, the Arab world’s largest economy, is set to grow by 250 percent by 2030, with e-sports leading the way. According to the London-based market research firm, the growth would mean that its contribution to Saudi Arabia’s GDP would have increased roughly 50 times by 2030 compared to 2022.
The kingdom’s gaming industry received $488 million in new funding in February. The Saudi Esports Federation, the National Development Fund, and the Social Development Bank provided funding. Wemade, based in Seoul, opened its Middle East headquarters in Abu Dhabi in January to focus on the region.
Savvy Games Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, announced it had agreed to acquire Scopley, a California-based mobile-first game maker, for $4.9 billion.
The aftermath of FTX’s bankruptcy continues to reverberate throughout the crypto world, including the various firms that the now-defunct exchange acquired prior to its demise. Storybook Brawl, a Web3 video game purchased by FTX only 13 months ago, has now been added to the list of casualties.
Good Luck Games, the creators of Storybook Brawl, have announced that the competitive card game will be shut down in a matter of days, after apparently struggling to find a new way forward after its parent company went bankrupt.
Storybook Brawl, as a small indie game, had only moderate success while it was live. According to SteamCharts data, the game’s all-time concurrent player count on the PC gaming platform Steam peaked at 2,770 in September 2021—six months before FTX acquired it.
Following the acquisition, the total number of players in Storybook Brawl steadily decreased. That’s unsurprising given the amount of backlash and review-bombing the game received following the FTX deal. After FTX purchased the game, some players vowed to uninstall it right away. Others were irritated by messages indicating that Storybook’s developers were looking into “non-cosmetic” ways to integrate NFTs.
The game’s average player count dropped 59% from 817 average players in February 2022, before the FTX acquisition, to about 331 average players in the past month.
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