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Brian Ward’s time as CEO of Savvy Games Group has come to an finish. Since becoming a member of the corporate in 2021 as founding CEO, he rapidly grew to become one of many essential faces of Saudi Arabia’s push into the worldwide video games business. Now, 4 years earlier than the Kingdom’s 2030 goal, he is stepping down.
Ward’s departure comes earlier than anticipated. It appeared probably that he would nonetheless be operating Savvy in 2030, when Saudi Arabia might correctly look again and choose whether or not its big wager on video games and esports had labored and Vision 2030 had develop into a actuality. That won’t occur now.
Relaxation assured, Ward leaves behind an organization that appears very completely different from the one he joined. Savvy has spent billions shopping for a number of the greatest firms and companies in video games, whereas additionally attempting to construct a video games ecosystem inside Saudi Arabia.
The outcomes have been blended, however there is no such thing as a query that Savvy – and thus, Saudi Arabia – has develop into a significant power in video games throughout the Brian Ward period.
A shopping for spree
When Ward joined Savvy, he was handed one of the vital uncommon jobs within the video games business. Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund (PIF) had put aside $38 billion to assist flip the Kingdom into a world gaming powerhouse by 2030, and Ward was the person chosen to spearhead this ambition.
He introduced over 25 years of business expertise to the function, together with 9 years as CEO of cell video games developer LottoInteractive, in addition to senior positions at Microsoft, Digital Arts and Activision – the place he helped flip Name of Obligation into one of many greatest franchises in gaming historical past.
The most important a part of Ward’s time at Savvy has been its lengthy listing of headline-making offers. The corporate bought esports businesses including ESL and FACEIT in 2022, which have been later introduced collectively as ESL FACEIT Group.
Then got here the $4.9bn purchase of Scopely in 2023, a deal that gave Savvy management of one of many greatest cell video games firms on the earth, together with Monopoly Go, which went on to develop into an enormous success, reaching $6bn revenue in record time.
Scopely, backed by Savvy, acquired Niantic’s games business for $3.5bn, bringing Pokémon Go into its wider portfolio. The Monopoly Go developer additionally acquired a majority stake in Loom Games, a deal that valued the Istanbul-based studio at greater than $1bn. Extra just lately, Savvy agreed to buy Mobile Legends: Bang Bang developer Moonton Games for around $6bn, though that deal remains to be ready to shut.
There have been additionally loads of different investments throughout video games and esports. However the different a part of the Ward period that may be simple to miss is the work taking place outdoors Savvy’s acquisitions that will show much more essential in the long term.
Past the acquisitions
If Saudi Arabia was severe about constructing a video games business by 2030, it wanted folks to truly work in it. Underneath Ward’s watch, Savvy constructed partnerships with know-how firms, universities and faculties to create a expertise pipeline and supply college students with a route into the business. It additionally established Savvy Video games Studios in 2022, later rebranded as Steer Studios, and positioned it below veteran Ubisoft govt Yannick Theler.
At college stage alone, partnerships with King Saud University, Alfaisal College, King Abdulaziz College, the American University of Bahrain and others have launched devoted video games and esports programmes to establishments that had no formal pathway earlier than.
In the meantime, Savvy and the Ministry of Training’s Play to Be taught competitors brought in more than 719,000 students from 7,705 schools, with college students submitting greater than 155,000 sport ideas. This partnership with the Ministry additionally extends to incorporating sport improvement into Saudi faculty curricula and the nationwide e-learning platform Madrasati.
There have been additionally programmes geared toward discovering builders relatively than merely educating them. Final 12 months, a GameOn GameJam with HP and Saudi Electronic University introduced college groups collectively to create video games round sustainability, with the profitable groups transferring into Savvy Academy’s three-month incubator.
All of those sit alongside Savvy’s wider partnerships with firms together with Roblox, Unity, AWS, HP and SBI Holdings in Japan, in addition to its work with investment firm Merak Capital and NEOM, to provide Saudi gaming startups entry to funding, business connections and worldwide networks.
Savvy wasn’t merely attempting to create or develop present Saudi gaming companies. It was additionally actively attempting to persuade main world video games firms to determine a presence within the KSA. Its 2024 invitation to firms including Nintendo and Capcom was primarily an try to make Riyadh a regional base for the business. Since then, firms together with Scopely, through its Mirai studio, Xsolla, Territory Studio, and Side have established or dedicated to establishing a presence within the Kingdom.
None of that is glamorous. MoUs and college competitions don’t make widespread headlines the best way a $4.9bn acquisition does. However the pipeline Ward oversaw, from classroom to accelerator to studio, is an enormous a part of his legacy that Imaginative and prescient 2030 shall be measured towards. If something, it reveals that Savvy was attempting to construct the infrastructure across the video games business, not simply purchase its manner into it.
Not all the pieces went as deliberate
Savvy’s esports push has additionally been far much less easy, with layoffs at ESL FACEIT Group and a shift in focus, with Ward saying the corporate had “pretty much done what we needed to do” by way of its main esports investments, whereas remaining bullish on the sector.
On the identical time, Saudi Arabia’s wider esports ambitions proceed by the Esports World Cup and Qiddiya Metropolis, each of which stay main elements of the Kingdom’s push to develop into a world esports hub.
Then there’s Embracer. Savvy was revealed as the mystery partner behind a planned $2bn investment within the writer earlier than pulling out of the deal in 2023. The collapse performed a component in triggering Embracer’s financial crisis, resulting in greater than 1,000 layoffs, studio closures, undertaking cancellations and the sale of major assets. It will definitely led to Embracer breaking itself aside.
Of the $38bn put aside for gaming, Ward said in March that Savvy had spent round $13bn, lower than a 3rd of the full. He additionally warned that the combating linked to the Iran battle might harm the area’s fame as a spot for world gaming companies. Extra just lately, the inaugural Esports Nations Cup was postponed from November 2026 to November 2027 following an evaluation of the broader regional scenario.
The larger image at PIF
Although Ward framed his departure as “the right time for new leadership”, his exit can be half of a bigger shift taking place throughout PIF’s investments.
Amit Midha, who led the PIF’s know-how funding firm Alat, was dismissed earlier this year following a PIF spending overview that noticed the corporate drop its semiconductor ambitions.
LIV Golf, the breakaway golf league that has acquired greater than $5bn from PIF since 2022, is going through a possible bankruptcy filing after PIF pulled its funding on the finish of the 2026 season. Neo Area Group, established by PIF in 2024 to construct a nationwide area ecosystem and help Imaginative and prescient 2030, additionally lost its CEO Martijn Blanken earlier this year.
And that is not all. At Newcastle United, long-serving manager Eddie Howe left in July, whereas a number of key gamers have since been offloaded because the membership reshapes its squad below new supervisor Matthias Jaissle, recruited from PIF-owned Al-Ahli Saudi Soccer Membership, with monetary guidelines limiting how freely it could possibly spend.
Then there’s NEOM, the futuristic metropolis undertaking that was one among PIF’s most talked-about bets, which has been considerably scaled again from its authentic imaginative and prescient, with work on The Line halted until after 2030 and now centered on being constructed in a “financially sustainable” manner. The mega undertaking was additionally cited as one of many causes the sovereign wealth fund was reportedly short on fresh capital for new investments.
Throughout all of those ventures, PIF seems to be coming into a extra cautious section, pulling again from a few of its larger, long-term bets and, in some instances, altering the folks operating them. There have additionally been reported concerns inside Savvy about how the corporate and the newly acquired EA – a PIF-led $55bn mega deal – would work alongside one another as two big gaming companies below the identical Saudi possession.
What comes subsequent
Turqi Alnowaiser, a senior PIF govt who heads its worldwide investments division, will run Savvy on an interim foundation following Ward’s exit. He additionally performed a central function in PIF’s $55bn acquisition of EA, giving him a direct hand in one of many greatest offers in gaming historical past.
If and when PIF appoints a brand new everlasting CEO, Ward’s long-term successor will not be ranging from scratch, removed from it. They’ll take over an organization with Scopely, ESL FACEIT Group, Steer Studios and a big assortment of investments throughout the video games business, together with round $12bn worth of gaming shares. On high of that, there’s nonetheless round $25bn to spend if the out there funds outlined for Savvy from the beginning haven’t been shrunk.
With Alnowaiser’s appointment, Savvy now has a more in-depth relationship with PIF, which itself now controls a a lot bigger assortment of gaming belongings, most notably EA. It might additionally imply Savvy enters a extra managed and cautious section after years of enlargement and acquisitions. Whether or not that change in route has performed any half within the current departures is one other query.
As for the relationships Ward spent 5 years constructing with publishers and studios all over the world, and the data he accrued about how this business truly works, none of that robotically transfers. The query of how Savvy and EA function as sister firms below the identical proprietor has no clear reply but both.
The subsequent few years will decide whether or not the foundations constructed throughout Ward’s tenure can ship the outcomes the Kingdom needs by 2030. No matter occurs from right here, the Brian Ward period shall be an enormous a part of how Saudi Arabia’s video games business obtained to the place it’s immediately and the place it goes subsequent.