Savvy Games, the gaming investment vehicle backed by the Saudi Public Investment Fund, has made another significant acquisition in the gaming industry by purchasing Chinese mobile developer Moonton. As reported by Bloomberg, Moonton’s previous parent company Bytedance is offloading it as part of a major pivot into AI development and away from video games. The acquisition has been valued at $6 billion USD. To put that in perspective, that figure is only $1.5 billion shy of what Microsoft paid to acquire Bethesda a few years ago. It is also nearly twice what Savvy Games subsidiary Scopely paid to acquire Pokémon GO developer Niantic last year.
“This acquisition directly supports Savvy’s purpose to enable prosperity and connection through play for generations to come, and our mission to drive long-term growth and innovation in games and esports,” Savvy Games CEO Brian Ward said in a press release. “Once completed, it will further strengthen our leadership in mobile games, deepen our talent pool, expand our global footprint, and enhance our reach across esports.”
Moonton might not be a particularly well-known brand if you’re not into esports or mobile gaming. The reason they’re worth so much to Savvy Games, however, is the company’s dominance in those markets. Its mobile MOBA game Mobile Legends: Bang Bang has 1.5 billion registered users and around 110 million monthly active players, ranking among the top ten most-played mobile games in more than 80 countries. As such, if you have virtually limitless oil money to spend and want a significant stake in the booming esports and mobile games market, acquiring a company like Moonton appears like a decent place to start.
This acquisition of Moonton is, of course, far from the first of Savvy Games’, or the Saudi Public Investment Fund’s, large acquisitions and investments in the video game industry. In addition to the above-mentioned recent acquisition of Niantic, the Saudi PIF made a significant investment in publisher EA last year. The Saudi regime is, of course, known for its conservative values and extremely strict laws regarding women’s and LGBTQ+ rights. This has led to situations like EA earlier this year having to assure Sims fans that this acquisition won’t impact the company’s values. With Saudi Arabia continuing to diversify its economy away from oil and into industries like tourism, AI, sports, and video games (as well as sportswash its egregious human rights record), this is unlikely to be the last major gaming acquisition we see from Savvy Games or its subsidiaries anytime soon.