Saudi Arabia Increases Its Stake in Nintendo for 2nd Time This Week - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 17 February 2023 / 4,274 Views
Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), a wealth fund chaired by crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, for the second time this week has increased its stake in Nintendo. This is also the fourth time the PIF has purchased stake in the gaming giant.
Saudi Arabia's PIF now holds an 8.26 percent stake in Nintendo as of today, according to the Associated Press. It is now "the largest outside investor in the Japanese gaming company."
Data from the Nasdaq Stock Market reveals the public fund also owns $2.9 billion of stock in Activision Blizzard, $1.7 billion in Electronic Arts stock, and $1.2 billion in Take-Two stock.
In May 2022 bought a 5.01 percent stake in Nintendo and last month increased its stake by 1.06 percent to 6.07 percent. Earlier this week, the public fund purchased an additional 1.01 percent in Nintendo to bring its total stake to 7.08 percent.
The Saudi Arabia's crown prince has a goal of making the economy of the country less reliable on oil.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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All people here will continue to purchase nintendo games regardless of the shares Saudi Arabia own
I'd like to start thinking maybe this won't be so bad. Maybe Saudi Arabia will have positive changes within it's boarders. After all, it'd be in their best interests financially to make positive changes.
one day maybe? you never know!
We all need to encourage positive change wherever it's needed.
It doesn't mean it'll stay a horrible place. There's still hope that the people will find a way to rid themselves of the scummy royal family. Even Gadhafi seemed untouchable, but in the 2010s...
Besides, there's still the law in Japan, and a plan by Nintendo, to prevent a hostile takeover. Even by Saudi Arabia.
Although that law in Japan may have some exceptions, hence Saudi Arabia owning almost all of SNK.
I'm against any state owned groups buying foreign companies - regardless of the sector.
Me too, but what if, and I'm not certain this would happen, what if Saudi Arabia one day had positive changes?
All else I can think of to do about this is hope for positive change in Saudi Arabia.
For a second I thought I opened an old tab but then noticed the "2nd Time This Week" part of the title. They seem to buy small stakes every now and then
It's terrible now, but maybe, and I don't know how likely it is, we'll see positive change in Saudi Arabia. After all, it'd be in their best interests economically.
They are becoming a pretty major shareholder
But does that give them any say in what's in Nintendo games? I don't exactly think they'll do anything stupid like remove strong female characters or make female characters cover their faces, but if they care about good returns in their investments then they won't meddle.
They can definitely put a whole lot of pressure on management to do things. It doesn't mean they will, but they have a large enough steak that they could.
If they wanna profit they won't screen with Nintendo. If they were putting Sharia Law before profit they wouldn't have let Mai Shiranui keep fighting in an open blouse and thong.
They make this move to make money, not to enforce their culture. So they won't do a thing it seems. Nintendo just put out a remake of Metroid, Bayo 3 and will release a Zelda game in which Zelda is not a damsel in distress as she is in most entries. So I don't think Saudi Arabia is involved in the creative process at all.
Don't forget that KOF XV came out after their big investment in SNK, but Mai's still nearly naked.
