Davis from Denkiphile: "Every year, the Evolution Fighting Game Championships are filled with a variety of surprises that leave viewers wanting more and disappointed that they had not gone. With an incredible $20,000 bonus being awarded to the first place winner and a valuable spot in the Capcom Cup, this will be one of the most exciting tournaments of the year for Ultra Street Fighter IV. Outside of that particular title, this is still one of the biggest, if not the biggest tournaments for almost every other title. Certainly, players have been practicing up and saving their best for this event. Expect to see upsets as well as some of the best matches in fighting games all year round."
The fighting game scene is desperate for financing - but that same financing might ultimately bring about its end.
You can worm yourself into anything with enough money, and you can see just how strong people's integrity really is when you throw enough their way. Capitalism is one hell of a drug.
If you don’t like the increasing control the Saudis have of gaming including Nintendo, SNK, Evo, Scopely and shares in many more companies including Take Two than FIND ANOTHER HOBBY.
-That’s why I’m glad I still have boxing and am able to read a copy of Ring magazine. And you know what, not once is there a mention of the Saudi government and what they’re up to - and I’m glad that’s kept out of boxing… Although now, since the Saudis took control of boxing, at the start of most heavyweight boxing matches the Saudi National anthem is sung even if there isn’t a Saudi boxer.
My God, for the people who do not understand how irony is used to highlight a point: the Saudi government's PIF that it has used to invest in video game companies has also been used to invest in boxing and buy Ring boxing magazine. It is all part of scheme to move away from oil based industries and for Saudi to focus on cultural dominance, sport and gaming.
? Evo was in financial difficulties until Saudi Arabia acquired them
Crazy how things turn out — first Sony scooped up Evo, now you’ve got Saudi/Middle Eastern money floating around in the mix. Honestly, not shocking at all. These countries are sitting on oil money reserves that make Western corporations look broke. They already flipped the PGA upside down with LIV Golf, offered Tiger Woods almost a billion, bought soccer teams across Europe, hosted a World Cup in Qatar, and are building their own Saudi league with Ronaldo, Neymar, etc.
And it’s not just sports — they’ve been buying stakes in Nintendo, PlayStation, Capcom, even movie studios. End of the day, Western companies will always ‘sell their soul’ if the check has enough zeroes. Billion-dollar soft power investments vs. quarterly earnings? Easy choice. Don’t be surprised if in a few years we’re watching EVO on a stage in Riyadh with pyrotechnics bigger than WrestleMania
@neutralgamer1992
What stake does Saudi Arabia have in Playstation? I searched google and this is the list that came up:
Nintendo (8.58% of shares as of September 2024)
Capcom
Activision Blizzard
Electronic Arts (EA)
Take-Two Interactive
Scopely (acquisition)
Embracer Group (investment)
SNK (majority ownership)
Buying Evo isn't the same as having a stake in Playstation or Sony itself
It is my bad they own shares in Nintendo, EA, SNK, Embrace group, koei tecmo, capcom and reportedly own a hefty piece of take two (multi billion dollar stake)
Saudi have Savvy gaming group who has access to Saudi public investment funds. It's a trillion dollar fund which they want to invest and grow by 2030 so we can expect gaming investments to keep growing. And our western companies will keep taking the money because they only care about bottom line and these middle eastern countries have too much money as is and their funds continue to grow daily
im more concerned how much stock they're buying from nintendo
but they have reduced it. but the presence is there.
I mean, money is money to corporations. Why are we only discussing the giver and not the taker?
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The gaming community has long accepted chinese investors, supposedly “evil communists” into their hobby, but brown people is where they draw the line lmao
Saudi Arabian megaproject Qiddiya has fully acquired Evolution Championship Series (Evo) operator RTS.
Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) has sold its stake in Evolution Championship Series (Evo) to NODWIN Gaming.
I enjoyed Evo and honestly the setups this year were actually pretty amazing. They rotated PlayStation had a great high quality monitor. The events ran a little sketchy to me though. I was in Jwong pool and they held off our progress for nearly an hour to wait for him.
But no names were being DQd in like 15 minutes. Then when I was on stream I had to wait ANOTHER hour for My opponent because he was a streamers brother. It felt kind of Hollywood, and it’s hard to maintain focus when you see favoritism like that.
Overall I think Sony supported Evo top notch but I would like to see them get more into the online brackets on their ecosystem. With games like Tokon, invincible coming out making tournaments accessible to more casual players is great for the community.
May I ask you what’s your FGC alias ? I can maybe watch some of your games . I’m a big FGC fan and I play fighting games mostly
I play for STG - Lexreborn2 I’m just the old man of the team trying to support a younger generation of players.
