Savvy Games Group has been spearheading Saudi Arabia’s investments in electronic entertainment since 2021. After buying major stakes in some of the biggest game companies around, as well as acquiring mobile juggernauts Scopely (Monopoly Go!) and Niantic (Pokémon Go), the roughly $38 billion fund’s CEO, Brian Ward, is stepping down, according to a new report by Bloomberg.
“As Savvy embarks on its next period of transformational growth, this is the right time for new leadership for that evolution,” he reportedly wrote this week in a message to staff. Turqi Alnowaiser, the governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which backs the Savvy Games Group, will be taking over as interim CEO, removing perhaps the only fig leaf separating the global gaming giant from its human rights–agnostic owner.
Prior to helping spearhead the Kingdom’s major play in gaming, including its consolidation of what remains of the esports industry, Ward led the lottery gaming company LottoInteractive. In the late 2000s, he was VP of worldwide studios at Activision. Bloomberg notes that Ward’s departure comes amid other management shifts across PIF’s portfolio as the investment vehicle looks to rein in costs.
Saudi Arabia recently completed the largest leveraged buyout in history with the sale of Electronic Arts for $55 billion. That deal foisted an enormous amount of debt on the Madden and Battlefield publisher, and remains a direct investment by Saudi Arabia in gaming that doesn’t run through Savvy, which reportedly still has the lion’s share of its $38 billion to deploy on gaming acquisitions. Bloomberg reports that the competing investments in gaming have led to some confusion within the ranks at Savvy about what Saudi Arabia’s strategy is for running both entities.
Savvy is currently in the midst of closing a $6 billion acquisition of Chinese mobile giant Moonton Games.