Sony just lately ended considered one of its extra weird pandemic-era side-quests by promoting its majority stake within the combating sport occasion Evo. One of many largest esports occasions of the 12 months is now co-owned by expertise administration firm RTS and India-based NODWIN Gaming. That appeared principally high-quality, till now.
Yesterday Qiddiya Gaming, which is backed by the Saudi Arabian Public Funding Fund (PIF). introduced it was taking full possession of RTS, making it the second-biggest stakeholder for Evo. Chief technique officer Muhannad Aldawood known as it “a strategic step that may additional strengthen our esports enterprise and unlock new alternatives throughout the broader gaming ecosystem.”
He added, “most significantly, it will allow Qiddiya to maintain fueling the continued development of Evolution Championship Sequence (EVO), the world’s largest combating sport occasion since 1996, with limitless potentials.”
The transfer places the premier occasion for Avenue Fighter 6, Tekken 8, and different combating video games squarely within the crosshairs of Saudi Arabia’s ongoing efforts to “sportswash” its abysmal human rights fame and the truth that it’s nonetheless dominated by a literal monarch within the 12 months 2025. Different notable makes an attempt embody issues like merging with the PGA Tour, partnering with WWE, and paying Christiano Ronaldo $700 million to play soccer in Riyadh.
There have additionally been large shifts into gaming as properly. This has included investing billions throughout the whole lot from Nintendo and Capcom to Digital Arts and Nexon Gaming. Earlier this 12 months, it purchased Pokémon Go and different Niantic-developed cell video games for a whopping $3.5 billion. It even purchased all of King of Fighters and Metallic Slug writer SNK Company, taking the corporate personal and seemingly forcing the builders to place Ronaldo in this 12 months’s Deadly Fury: Metropolis of the Wolves.
However the push has been much more obvious in aggressive gaming. It bought main international event organizer ESL FACEIT in 2022, and snagged a 30 p.c stake in Chinese language esports firm Hero Esports in 2023. And it simply wrapped up the 2025 Esports World Cup, an try to astroturf a brand new main aggressive gaming occasion into existence by means of huge prize swimming pools by no means earlier than seen, even within the esports bubble years of the late 2010s.
Whereas some communities have boycotted the occasion, others have been blissful to lean on the publicity and cash at a time when professional gaming is struggling. A documentary selling the 2025 EWC was launched on Amazon earlier this 12 months, however the model streaming in Saudi Arabia stripped out gamers speaking about LGTBQ+ points and issues.
“We’re upset to study, upon your request for remark, that the Saudi broadcast of Esports World Cup: Stage Up has been altered to take away photographs of our Delight jersey, in addition to necessary components of our Co-CEO Steve Arhancet’s story as a homosexual man in esports,” Group Liquid, which fields gamers in League of Legends, Overwatch 2, Apex Legends, and extra, wrote on the time.
Saudi Arabia’s funding fund remains to be solely a minority investor in Evo, and it’s unclear how the change in possession will influence the occasion transferring ahead. On the very least, it’s laborious to see Saudi Arabia not being added to the record of nations that presently host annual Evo tournaments. How professional gamers reply additionally stays to be seen.
Combating video games have all the time been distinctive inside esports. With a legacy that dates again to the early arcade days and communities constructed on native, grassroots connections slightly than company branding workouts, Evo has all the time had a particular place inside aggressive gaming. It’s now one which should confront the ethical calculus of co-owners presently accused, amongst different issues, of a current surge in extra-judicial executions.
