The Mohammed bin Salman Charity Foundation is about to acquire a large share of SNK, the famous Japanese fighting game maker.
The Saudi company better known as Misk has invested $ 223 million in SNK. It thus owns a third of the total shares. This development is one of many actions that bin Salman has taken to improve the cultural reputation of Saudi Arabia. However, many of the Crown Prince’s previous actions have been subject to fierce criticism.
Much of the criticism comes from the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, which the CIA officially attributed to Mohammed Bin Salman. In addition, confirmed TRT World that the government of Saudi Arabia is investigating Misk in connection with the recruitment of spies on Twitter.
According to Misk, the goal of the acquisition is to “encourage young people to learn for a better future.”
SNK is better known as the publisher of some of the best fighting games of the 1990s. Some of the best known are Fatal Fury, Samurai Showdown and King of Fighters. The developer has been a lot less successful since then, struggling for a long time to stay afloat in the current market. But in 2016 the company was completely bought by a Chinese holding company. Apparently the Mohammed bin Salman Foundation is trying to outbid it.
Whether this acquisition will have any consequences for King of Fighters XV, which is now in production, remains to be seen.
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