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The King of Fighters XV

Saudi Arabian crown prince's game company buys huge part of SNK

The controversial move sees Electronic Gaming Development Company own 33.3% of stock.

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One of the most classic Japanese developers is of course SNK. It rose to fame with amazing arcade games in the '80s and '90s, and its home console Neo Geo was a huge success. But as of today, it is not as Japanese anymore as Electronic Gaming Development Company is now the biggest shareholder after buying 33.3% of the stock.

This is a Saudi Arabian video game company founded by crown prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, and he is also reported to fully fund this deal himself as a part of his "Saudi Vision 2030" program. Unfortunately, the crown prince is a very controversial person accused of being involved in the murder of the Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi two years ago, a mass execution of civilians and according to several human rights groups, he is also connected to arrests of Saudi dissidents and several cases of torture.

As a user on Resetera points out, we often complain when video game companies act bad with loot-boxes or crunch time - but they are very rarely murderers: "It's ok to call a piece of shit a piece of shit and though people on this board routinely shout "fuck Konami" at least they were not in bed with actual murderers like SNK are now."

Will you still buy SNK games as usual, or does this change your perception of the company?

The King of Fighters XV

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