job and Call of Duty is just beyond expectations. I give them full credit, actually.


Activision has said that one of their main reasons behind accepting Microsoft’s acquisition offer is that they think they’ll struggle to compete as companies like Embracer, Savvy and Tencent get bigger. What are your thoughts on the direction the industry is headed and things increasingly consolidate? I think we are entering a new phase of consolidation,


but I think the underlying, interesting part of the last ten years, is just how many more new sources of financing and capital have become available to smaller publishers and developers, whereas in the early 2000s, there was no VC money, essentially. You were pulled into a big publisher, if you wanted to scale it. Now, there’s all sorts of different options.


How many staff members are currently operating across the whole Savvy Games Group? Probably about 1100.


be an amazing thing to watch. I also think the sector, understandably, was developed focused on games and esports enthusiasts. What we need to do is begin to broaden the appeal to a broader audience. If you take, for example, what Liberty Media has managed to do with F1 through that show Drive to Survive. I mean, people who don’t know the front end of the car from the back end of a car are now excited about F1. It appeals to people who are not already car enthusiasts.


I think as a sector, that’s what we need to do. Find ways to appeal to people who might not just be a CSGO fan or a DOTA fan or whatever.


What was the thought process behind buying smaller stakes in established companies like Nintendo, EA, Activision and the like? Those were all PIF investments, to be clear. They were made purely for financial reasons. But those are all really good. Those are all investments that we think in Savvy, we can begin to operationalise and use. Hopefully that gives us a stronger relationship or an avenue for enhancing the relationship. We’ve already begun some of those discussions.


As someone who spent many years at Activision, what are your thoughts on the current situation with the company and unionization? I’ve been so out of it for so long. I think the company has changed a lot. I’m very interested in the potential acquisition by Microsoft. They continue to do an amazing


46 | MCV/DEVELOP March 2023


What do you think of as the near term goals? What are the current targets? Our overall horizon is much longer than most people. We’re thinking seven to ten years, or ten years plus. With ESL and FACEIT we’re focused on improving the end user experience across product lines. We’re focused on making investments and growing our geographic footprint to give us greater strength in regions that ESL has not historically been a player in. Growing and increasing our audience reach and making investments on the technology side of the business that enhance the online experience. On the game studio side, we’re building up the team,


and probably another hundred people will be hired in the next twelve months. We’re building a mobile casual focused team and a console, cross-platform focused team. On the Nine66 side, they’ve got probably five or six


different business lines that are designed to collectively build up the ecosystem in Saudi Arabia in terms of providing the right infrastructure for local companies and local entrepreneurs and people who want to have a career in our industry, as well as the right tools, the right programmes, and support and so on. That’s as well as making sure that what’s on offer from the kingdom can attract foreign developers and talent when setting up a studio, or setting up a QA facility. We want to compete. With the fund, we want to be more strategic with our


deal pipeline in the next twelve months and have a more fleshed out investment strategy. So that’s a whole bucket of things.s.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64