Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, has purchased one-third of the total SNK shares for 813 million riyals, approximately 162 million euro.
The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, bought a huge share from the Japanese SNK. The latter is a video game hardware and software company known for publishing famous titles such as The King of Fighters among many others. The most recent entry was Samurai Shodown.
The huge investment came at 813 million riyals (162 million euro) and was made by the prince’s charity organization called Misk. After the deal, Misk owns 33.3% of SNK’s total shares and according to a statement, the company is planning to get 17,7% more. If that happens, Misk will own the majority of SNK with 51%. So, why did the Crown Prince suddenly take interest in the Japanese SNK?
The investment of the Mohammed Bin Salman Charitable Foundation “MiSK Charity” in the Japanese company SNK reinforces its continuous commitment towards its goals of empowering Saudi men and women through building economic partnerships, as part of the institution’s updated strategy to maximize the impact on youth empowerment.
That’s part of the official announcement but the Crown Prince is a rather controversial figure. Now’s probably a good moment to note that the prince in question is not the same prince who’s a big fan of Dota 2. We’re not certain what games the prince likes, but his reputation was stained in the past few years after the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi. The latter was a journalist for the Washington Post who was murdered in Istanbul and all leads pointed to Mohammed bin Salman. At least according to the CIA.
Saudi Arabia has been trying to steadily get into the video game industry and we’ve seen it in the past. For example, the Saudi Arabia city project Neom. Riot Games were forced to end their deal with Neom after harsh criticism from fans. BLAST decided it’s a good idea to also give it a shot but ultimately had to back out too.
Whether these are all just attempts to clear the public image of the prince remains to be seen. So far nobody’s really buying it but who knows maybe all of that will change in a few more years. What do you think? Share your opinion on our Facebook page!
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