(Riyadh) From the first Pac-Man to the PlayStation 5, young Saudis discover the history of video games in a temporary museum in Saudi Arabia, inviting them to participate in the development of the industry in the Gulf kingdom.
Consoles and arcade games from the past fifty years are on display at Gamers8, an eight-week eSports tournament in the capital Riyadh with prizes totaling $45 million.
The oil monarchy has never hidden its passion for games and eSports, the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, being himself known to be a fan of the Call of Duty game.
The country’s 38-year-old de facto leader last year announced a $38 billion investment plan for gaming and esports group Savvy Games, owned by Saudi Arabia’s wealthy sovereign wealth fund. .
The national strategy for the development of the sector places particular emphasis on the local industry, promising to become an “Eden” for game designers “promoting Saudi and Arab culture”.
In addition to the museum, Gamers8 offers many training workshops, which have introduced more than 3,000 young people to skills such as coding or animation.
Mohammed al-Fakih, a young developer who came to expand his knowledge in the field, is delighted to now have the opportunity to “create games, develop his own ideas and carry them out while respecting local customs and traditions”.
“Before, the Arabs only bought games, they didn’t develop them,” he says.
The oil-rich country, where more than two-thirds of its citizens are under 30, is a lucrative market for video game creators, but none have yet managed to win over audiences with a product showcasing local culture, acknowledges Faisal bin Homran, an official at the Saudi Esports Federation.
According to him, the kingdom now has 25,000 developers, locals and expatriates. With “foreign expertise and skill transfer, we will identify games that can achieve international success,” he says.
The national strategy has set the goal of producing 30 games in Saudi Arabia capable of competing globally by 2030.
Local publishers can in any case count on unconditional fans like Khaled Alghaith, a 14-year-old girl who claims to test all the games created by her compatriots.
Every time, “I’m like, ‘Wow, that’s the job of a Saudi,’ and I’m very proud of it,” says the Rocket League-loving teenager, who spent his summer vacation in the workshops. gamers8 coding.
Despite its immense wealth, Saudi Arabia has not always been well received by the gaming community.
In 2020, protests by LGBTQ gamers against the Gulf country’s criminalization of homosexuality scuppered Riot Games and Danish tournament organizer BLAST’s deal with NEOM, a futuristic $500 billion megalopolis in progress construction in the kingdom.
That hasn’t stopped Riyadh from continuing its offensive: this year, the Savvy Group bought Copely, a Californian mobile games company for $4.9 billion, while the Sovereign Wealth Fund now owns more than 8% of Nintendo.
A possible rise of Saudi Arabia on the video game scene, like that of China before it, nevertheless raises concerns among some experts, who point out the risk of censorship.
“We will see an unconscious change in development, and fewer games with a critical point of view,” warns Tobias Scholz, an eSports expert at the Norwegian University of Agder.
But these questions are far from worrying Abdulaziz Maher who, since the training received during Gamers8, is considering a career as a developer.
“Ideas were a bit muddled in my head, but now they are clearer,” says the 23-year-old Saudi, who says he found “a way forward.”
