Savvy Games Group, a Saudi government-funded corporation, is said to have been the $2 billion mystery financial partner for The Embracer Group that vanished and left the company high and dry.
In order to establish itself as a significant gaming label, Savvy apparently sought to collaborate with The Embracer Group on game publishing. The Axios article doesn’t specify why Savvy Games Group abandoned on the agreement, though.
Even though it had acquired a verbal commitment for the cooperation in October 2022, The Embracer Group stated in May that it had experienced a significant relationship collapse at the last minute. Over a six-year period, the collaboration would have brought The Embracer Group more than $2 billion in contracted development income. The partner at the time, who is now purportedly Savvy Games Group, was also kept a secret by Embracer.
Because of this deal falling through, Embracer decided to close studios and lay off staff. Campfire Cabal, a studio tasked with taking over the Expeditions series, was among those impacted. Crystal Dynamics, which is working on separate Perfect Dark and Tomb Raider projects, has been spared from the impact.
Savvy Games Group is part of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund known as the Public Investment Fund (PIF). Last year, PIF invested in Nintendo and now owns about 5% of the company. Saudi Arabia has also invested in Electronic Arts and Take-Two Interactive.
[Source]: Axios: Saudi-backed Savvy Games was mystery partner in collapsed $2B Embracer deal (axios.com) – [Archive] – [Screenshot].