Saudi Arabia now owns 5.01% of Nintendo

[Mr Jt (Gog is king)]

The purchase was made by the Public Investment Fund, a sovereign wealth fund that makes investments on behalf of the kingdom. The PIF is controlled by Saudi Arabia’s controversial crown prince and effective ruler, Mohammed bin Salman.

A Nintendo spokesperson told Bloomberg that it had learned about the investment from news reports and would not comment further.

This is just the latest, most high-profile, and largest in a series of investments made by Saudi Arabia’s PIF in the video game industry, which has had a particular focus on Japanese firms (due in part to the weak yen). Earlier this year, it acquired 5% stakes in Capcom and Nexon (which is South Korean, but trades on the Tokyo stock exchange). In late 2020, the PIF made a $3 billion investment in smaller stakes in American games publishing giants EA, Activision Blizzard, and Take-Two. A subsidiary of the crown prince’s foundation also owns almost all of Metal Slug and The King of Fighters developer SNK.

Video games are a prominent area of investment for PIF, although far from the only one. One of its largest investments is a $3.5 billion, 5% stake in Uber. It owns smaller stakes in Disney, Facebook, and Boeing. In 2021, PIF led a consortium that purchased Newcastle United Football Club, of the English Premier League.

Analysts differ on the reasons for PIF’s video game investments. Some suggest they are pure speculation, gambling on the wave of consolidation rolling through the games industry at the moment. (PIF stands to make a profit on its Activision Blizzard shares if the $70 billion Microsoft acquisition goes through, though it’s a brave investor who sees Nintendo as an acquisition target.) Others think that Saudi Arabia is interested in building its own content industry and is keen to learn from companies in this sector. Another theory is that the investments are a sort of financial PR or whitewashing, aligning the undemocratic and repressive state more closely with global culture.

Most companies would hesitate to welcome that alignment, however, and the spectre of Saudia Arabia exerting its influence on the global cultural stage is a worrying one.

Big yikes…..
Full article:
https://www.polygon.com/platform/amp/23122317/nintendo-saudi-arabia-investment-crown-prince-pif

[Uncle Sam]

Holografix님이 먼저 게시:

Green gunner님이 먼저 게시:

Starting a "boycott" on a game forum isn't an efficient way to do things. You might need to talk to the ESA, and see if you can get pass all the corporation bureaucratic bs they have to "offer".

Part of the reason why I posted was that I was planning on buying KoF XV and then I read about the corporate ownership of SNK. I was disappointed, and was curious what other fans thought about it.

Fair enough, knowing which corporation handle the ties behind the game licenses you purchase it's a great way to further solidify customers rights. Sadly game forums aren't a serious place to discuss about it, most of the time.

[Magma Dragoon]

I'm waiting for the jihad signal

[Uncle Sam]

Holografix님이 먼저 게시:

Green gunner님이 먼저 게시:

So with all the incidents that had happened since the 80-90's up to today, why we should defend corporation media? A recent example of their shenaningans, they buried the Maxwell trial; pandora papers were useless (many of the current global leaders and close associates are on the list, and nothing is done); the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ that's Myanmar has been forgotten, Yemen is forgotten, Ethiopia is forgotten, Congo is forgotten, West Papua is forgotten, etc. You get the point?

you don't need to defend it. corporate media is big business after all and the cause of a lot of misinformation campaigns in the world.

the trouble with saying it's the media's fault is because ultimately if you want to know something you have to do the research yourself. and the media has nothing to do with that.

all those places and stories you mentioned aren't forgotten because there is always coverage. the problem is that you're thinking that corporate media is like some kind of universal memory bank where if it's not being covered there, it's forgotten. and that's not the case.

Very good points, fair enough. Still corporation media is partly responsible for all the mess we have to deal with atm and in the close future, for better or for worse they have more resources and reach to "move" the overton window, alongside the nefarious politicians and associates.

[ゆのーさん]

they know an exploitive business when they see one

[Holografix]

Green gunner님이 먼저 게시:

Holografix님이 먼저 게시:

you don't need to defend it. corporate media is big business after all and the cause of a lot of misinformation campaigns in the world.

the trouble with saying it's the media's fault is because ultimately if you want to know something you have to do the research yourself. and the media has nothing to do with that.

all those places and stories you mentioned aren't forgotten because there is always coverage. the problem is that you're thinking that corporate media is like some kind of universal memory bank where if it's not being covered there, it's forgotten. and that's not the case.

Very good points, fair enough. Still corporation media is partly responsible for all the mess we have to deal with atm and in the close future, for better or for worse they have more resources and reach to "move" the overton window, alongside the nefarious politicians and associates.

There is some connection between media coverage of an event and the slanting of information (or outright lies) that persuades people to start believing all sort of things. but people's susceptibility to disinformation is not easy to gauge.

and you're right, there are some people who take advantage of certain events for power and profit. but not all hope is lost. the information is out there. you just have to take the time (and work) to find it.

[Uncle Sam]

Holografix님이 먼저 게시:

Green gunner님이 먼저 게시:

Very good points, fair enough. Still corporation media is partly responsible for all the mess we have to deal with atm and in the close future, for better or for worse they have more resources and reach to "move" the overton window, alongside the nefarious politicians and associates.

There is some connection between media coverage of an event and the slanting of information (or outright lies) that persuades people to start believing all sort of things. but people's susceptibility to disinformation is not easy to gauge.

and you're right, there are some people who take advantage of certain events for power and profit. but not all hope is lost. the information is out there. you just have to take the time (and work) to find it.

Agreed, that's why I nowadays pick the news from as many local news and corporation news and independent journalist sources; identify their bias and buzzwords, among others "checks" and contrast information. To attempt to get a clear picture of what's going on, and the consequences of it; would like to thank you for the conversation it's been fun & civil!

[Judgmental Amaterasu]

Holografix님이 먼저 게시:

i just posted the same kind of thread in the King of the Fighters XV steam forum because the saudi crown prince owns 96% of SNK.

I asked about whether the KoF XV community should boycott SNK given the saudi prince's anti-humanitarian reputation and actions.

Let's just say i recieved many 'jester' awards.

Obvious troll baiting.

[Holografix]

Green gunner님이 먼저 게시:

Holografix님이 먼저 게시:

There is some connection between media coverage of an event and the slanting of information (or outright lies) that persuades people to start believing all sort of things. but people's susceptibility to disinformation is not easy to gauge.

and you're right, there are some people who take advantage of certain events for power and profit. but not all hope is lost. the information is out there. you just have to take the time (and work) to find it.

Agreed, that's why I nowadays pick the news from as many local news and corporation news and independent journalist sources; identify their bias and buzzwords, among others "checks" and contrast information. To attempt to get a clear picture of what's going on, and the consequences of it; would like to thank you for the conversation it's been fun & civil!

you're welcome. a fun yet civil conversation is a rarity on off-topic. :)

[kilésengati]

That's basically all these mega funds and mega corps are doing since the last 20-30 years. Making money by having money; gaining influence by having influence. Also, you don't control the market by controlling a single company, but by owning enough of everything to gain access to the boards and through that to company politics.
Governments and companies like it, so don't expect anything to change. I mean, could you imagine a world were the people rule?!

[Siluva]

Indeed, big yikes.

[Under there]

5% of a company as large as Nintendo or Twitter IS a lot and would be more than enough to influence investors.

[Kamiyama]

They better not push for censorship in Nintendo games.

I will become un-politically correct. You have been warned.

[davidb11]

Eeeaea님이 먼저 게시:

5% of a company as large as Nintendo or Twitter IS a lot and would be more than enough to influence investors.

That literally makes no sense at all though.
Not one bit.
Someone at 5% can't do anything. They literally cannot influence people.

Kamiyama님이 먼저 게시:

They better not push for censorship in Nintendo games.

I will become un-politically correct. You have been warned.

They have 5% shares, Not 50%!
Why are people saying such absurd things?

[Teefa]

For the "It's just 5%" fools, it's worth noting that after Mohammad Bin Salman had Khashoggi murdered, there was a huge backlash from almost the entire entertainment industry. Actors and executives and companies were all outspoken and had organized many successful divestment initiatives. It had a real impact. The Saudis were held to account. It was a setback for their terrible goals.

Fast forward a little, MBS gives Disney a few billion dollars in cash, and suddenly the shallow press tours start popping up in SA again. Actors stuck to a narrow lane of commerce. Hands were shook. Photo ops were taken. This is well documented.

The exact same thing happened with Tencent buying stakes in various entertainment properties. Look how quickly Cena bent over for calling Taiwan Taiwan. Look how quickly Marvel removes content to appease the Chinese regime.

This is part of an explicit propaganda campaign, organized by a brutal dictatorship intent on *permanently* silencing any and all critics. There's nothing they won't do to further their aims. There is no bottom to their heinous atrocities.

On a practical level, I definitely don't want to materially support any company that enriches the Saudi regime. I won't ever buy Nintendo again. Capcom and SNK are out too. I could squint and hem and haw and justify an indulgence, but that's not how I roll.

On a more philosophical level, I play video games to have experiences. I don't want that creative direction to be influenced by these monsters. For example, Epic had this big MLK/Black history event. They definitely wont ever have one involving the plight of the Uighur.

MBS has shown a willingness to send death squads into other countries to silence dissent. Do you think Nintendo is going to protect some low profile writer/designer/studio working on a game about oppressive regimes when billions are on the line?

"What will the murderous despot think of this?" is not a great starting point for creativity and human connection. How long before certain themes and stories of resistance become verboten? How many stories will we never experience because some rich oligarch wanted to become that much richer? How many stories will we miss out on when the last ten people who wrote them were killed?

How long before we all just roll over because it's no longer financially viable to fight fascism?

[davidb11]

MArvel doesn't remove anything for the sake of the Chinese Government.
THat's well documented, and it's a blatant lie to claim otherwise. No Movie outside of China's releases were censored.

Editing things for movies released in China does not count, because of how China's strict rules are. Trying to fight them on that is not possible.

I don't even know anything about the people you bring up, all I know is it's absurd to claim this is a huge deal.

Also, don't complain about John Cena, that makes no sense to do so and looks extremely silly.
Money talks, and it's hard to stop China as one single person.

Seriously, unless you just get rid of China's army, you can't really do jack to them.
Also, Fascism is dead and hasn't been around in a long time. Especially since a Fascist government would ban all outside corporations from ever setting foot in their country, and there is no such as a Fascist Police State that has an Open Borders policy. :P
That is a complete hard counter to the main point of Fascism. Which is a literal police state run by the military in a full formed fanatical way.


IT's also extremely offensive to boycot any company with any ties like this, because it is rude and hostile to do so.
It's literally xenophobia by definition.