Nintendo Is Now Partly Owned By A Surprising Country
Nintendo has agreed to allow part of the company to be purchased by a surprise country, which stands to make a great deal of money on the acquisition.
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Nintendo is a massive company, and arguably the biggest gaming company in the world. However, it has now been announced that 5.01% of the company is now owned by a surprise country. Saudi Arabia has purchased a small percentage of the gaming giant. This is in addition to the country getting its hands on many gaming companies, such as Capcom, Take-Two, EA, and Activision have all been purchased in a small way by the country. SNK is almost all owned by Saudi Arabia as well. The country is known for having some of the richest people in the world, and they are clearly very business savvy, by seeing the massive gains to be made from the ever-growing gaming community.
Some might think that owning 5% of anything isn’t all that great, however, when it comes to dollars and cents of the grand total of what Nintendo is worth, it’s a lot of money. According to Forbes, Nintendo has a staggering $58 billion net worth. That means, Saudi Arabia now controls a $2.9 billion stake in the gaming company. That is a massive amount of money. Their net worth can also grow in time, which would then allow the country to rake in even more money.
Saudi Arabia has been purchasing many western-based properties in recent years, on top of buying big within the gaming community. This purchasing of all things western is an attempt to curry favor of the ongoing issues that are present in the country. Kotaku did a deep dive into the crown prince purchasing most of SNK, there were some details thrown in about why the country is busy trying to buy up all these new properties. According to the article written on the subject, “In reality, however, Saudi Vision 2030 is largely a propaganda campaign focused on whitewashing Saudi Arabia’s atrocious human rights record.” This apparent campaign that has seen the country purchase part of Nintendo is allegedly an attempt to reverse the global opinion of the country. The gaming giant is just another on the list of companies that are being bought up. The country had also previously purchased the rights to one of the biggest soccer teams that play in the Premier League.
It does seem kind of odd that a country would be so invested in purchasing stakes in gaming companies without having a strong or truly discernable gaming community. However, business is business, and there is a lot of money to be made in the growing gaming sector. E-Gaming has now taken over in terms of professional sports, and it can only go up from here. Saudi Arabia placing a stake in companies that release some of the biggest titles is smart, despite the steep controversy that is currently surrounding these purchases.
Nintendo selling 5% of its company is not going to cause waves, much like 96% of SNK now being owned by Saudi Arabia, but the fact that the company was willing to sell that much stake is certainly shocking. There are no details about how much the country had to pay to own 5% of the company, but we can imagine it was quite a lot. We are just hoping a villain isn’t planning a hostile takeover, we are looking at you, Bowser.
