Saudi Arabia has made no secret of its passion for gaming and e-sports, so there was no shortage of young Saudis to take in a museum of video game history stretching from the original Pac-Man to PlayStation 5.
It is part of Gamers8, an eight-week festival of e-sports tournaments in the capital, Riyadh, with a $45m prize pool – a project to inspire young people to create their own blockbuster titles.
The passion is believed to come from the very top, with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) said to be an avid Call of Duty player.
Last year, the 38-year-old de facto ruler announced a $38bn investment strategy for the Savvy Games Group, owned by the Public Investment Fund.
As it gathers momentum, the national gaming and e-sports strategy emphasises local game production, promising to turn the kingdom into “an Eden for game developers” that can produce new titles “promoting Saudi and Arabic culture”.
That is where the museum and adjacent “game labs” come in – some 3,000 people, the majority of them Saudis, have flocked to Gamers8 for crash courses in skills like coding and animation.
“In the past, Arabs were only buying games, not developing games,” said developer Mohammed al-Fakih.
– AL JAZEERA
