Saudi Crown Prince to acquire SNK

wyo

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MBS is going to authorize SSVS fatalities as punishment for bootlegging.
 

LoneSage

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Am i the only one who is hoping that this guys endless money and lack of sense might just have him tell SNK he wants them to start making neo geo games again?

LMBO that's an awesome and positive thought.
 
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16-bit

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LMBO that's an awesome and positive thought.

Indeed. It would like chicken soup for the Neo Geo soul. Neo-Geo.com should assemble a diplomatic envoy to establish formal relations.

On a more diabolical note, he could also form an "elite strike force" to track down lost protos.
 

Alphabet

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What's happen here is Saudi Arabia became the largest shareholder with EGDC. I don't think we can talk about M&A, it's too early.
By 2030-35, this country will be face to a short term challenge, his limited oil supply. And when the world tend to become more "green", they diversify their investment worldwide with different stream of income. That's also what the neighborhood countries do at different level (Qatar, UAE...).

Interesting to see behind the Crown Prince, there is a 35 years old guy. He probably pay attention to SNK because it could remember him the NEO GEO generation and try to bring back the company in his country, like a childhood frustration. Not bringing the old system but bring SNK to the next generation of gamer. That's where EGDC take part and could scale their business.
SNK had a branch office in 1995, but the Middle East market has always being a small market with a handful of distributors.
Here is a picture during the ACE Hardware at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 1995:
BqZB8h1CMAAGBOh.jpg
 
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yagamikun

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Hardly charity. From the article:

"The Misk foundation has been central to Mohammed bin Salman's drive to extend his brand overseas, and this investment is another move in that direction. But it is sure to attract criticism. The assassination of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi was attributed to Salman by the CIA, and Saudi Arabia has a notoriously poor human rights record, with homosexuality still criminalized with punishments ranging from floggings to the death penalty.

Misk, which markets itself as a non-profit organization aimed at empowering the kingdom's youth but has been accused of being little more than a vehicle to burnish the reputation of the crown prince, is itself mired in controversy. In November 2019 the US Justice Department linked one of its executives to the recruitment of spies inside Twitter. Saudi Arabia is said to be reviewing Misk's activities.

Back in September 2019, The Guardian reported the New York Public Library cancelled a workshop for 300 people after criticism from human rights groups after it emerged the event was partly funded by Misk. In November 2018, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation pulled its funding, and in July 2019 the Harvard University Extension School cancelled an agreement to reserve some of its summer school places for Misk-sponsored students."
 

theMot

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Hardly charity. From the article:

"The Misk foundation has been central to Mohammed bin Salman's drive to extend his brand overseas, and this investment is another move in that direction. But it is sure to attract criticism. The assassination of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi was attributed to Salman by the CIA, and Saudi Arabia has a notoriously poor human rights record, with homosexuality still criminalized with punishments ranging from floggings to the death penalty.

Misk, which markets itself as a non-profit organization aimed at empowering the kingdom's youth but has been accused of being little more than a vehicle to burnish the reputation of the crown prince, is itself mired in controversy. In November 2019 the US Justice Department linked one of its executives to the recruitment of spies inside Twitter. Saudi Arabia is said to be reviewing Misk's activities.

Back in September 2019, The Guardian reported the New York Public Library cancelled a workshop for 300 people after criticism from human rights groups after it emerged the event was partly funded by Misk. In November 2018, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation pulled its funding, and in July 2019 the Harvard University Extension School cancelled an agreement to reserve some of its summer school places for Misk-sponsored students."

They should register for an account here, they’ll fit right in.
 

oliverclaude

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Am i the only one who is hoping that this guys endless money and lack of sense might just have him tell SNK he wants them to start making neo geo games again?

Endless money and lack of sense? Reminds me of the Yakuza owned SNKP back in the day. Maybe they'll start making "Arabian Nights" Pachinko Nishijin again.
 

redfield0009

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Am i the only one who is hoping that this guys endless money and lack of sense might just have him tell SNK he wants them to start making neo geo games again?

With how they are buying up homecarts, this could definitely be a possibility. Maybe they will reprint games and tank the market for laughs.

I wonder what this means for the Neo Geo 3?
 

fucked_king

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This is the final nail in the coffin of SNK. Best case scenario he will just see this as another investment in his portfolio and not try to involve himself in day to day operations.
 

evil wasabi

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I remember something about Saudi customs destroying the inserts for Nam1975 Japanese because of the women on the front.
 

ShaolinAce

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Now there was a game. I'm conflicted on which version I like more. The SNES version is a classic Capcom platformer, but the Genesis version gives you a sword.

Genesis version has that classic Disney animation.

Ontopic. This is very what the fuck.
 

itsofrustratin

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Am i the only one who is hoping that this guys endless money and lack of sense might just have him tell SNK he wants them to start making neo geo games again?

If anybody would be in favour of selling unprofitable AES games again, it would be this guy. All full of marker though
 
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Let's see what the new owners do. As long as they don't try to fix what's not broken and add roll back netcode to all their new releases this could be a good thing. Not a big fan of China's government but SNK made some good choice under the Chinese leadership. New KOF, Samurai Shodown, some nice collections, and a number of classic SNK fighters on steam with roll back netcode.
 

LordCollector

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There’s been an uptick in Arab shelf collectors from what I’ve seen recently. It’s lame.
I didn't realize there were a lot of Neo Geo collectors in Saudi Arabia. I always thought the vast majority were in East Asia, North America, Europe, Australia. With all that oil money though, I guess it's not that surprising
 

Tripredacus

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There's always been "rumors" of super collectors of video games in oil countries. Like stories of gold plated Nintendos or something.
 

fake

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Boys, please don't fool the crown prince. Show some respect.
 
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