Saudi fund and SBA sign MoU on media coverage of Kingdom’s development projects

Jeddah - Yasmine El Tohamy - RIYADH: Manga Productions, affiliated with the Misk Foundation, organized a special event under the title “XP” in Riyadh to launch a new group of video games on various gaming platforms.
The event focused on interacting with the gaming community in the Kingdom and included gaming experiences, exclusive content, and enriching meetings.
Essam Bukhary, CEO of Manga Productions, told Arab News: “It is anticipated that in 2030 this market will reach SR50 billion ($13.3 billion). According to (the) Saudi government’s goals, e-sports and the video game sector together represent a massive market. Saudi Arabia and the Arab world have been content consumers for a long time.
“These days, we create news content and distribute it to the local community as well as worldwide. Therefore, I believe that Saudi Arabia’s future is quite bright, and we have great confidence in our abilities.”
He continued: “It’s the first time for a Saudi company to publish a game with AAA rating, so I think this is a huge milestone for the industry in the Kingdom. And this is the result of our investments and our talent. For many years we have been sending our students for internship programs in global studios in Japan, the US, and UK and this is the result, so I think the future is very bright. And we’re very confident that we can compete in the global markets.”
The games launched include “Grendizer Space Adventures: Feast of the Wolves,” “The Smurfs 2: Prisoner of the Green Jewel,” and “Flashback 2.”
The first of these will take players on an epic adventure with the giant Grendizer and Daisuke to defend Earth. Players will fight the forces of evil with the most powerful robot known to mankind and embark on a journey exploring the most famous landmarks and characters within an amazing world created by Joe Nagai, the author of the original series.
Video game enthusiasts can also discover a fantasy world full of surprises in “The Smurfs 2: Prisoner of the Green Jewel” and help the famous Smurfs in the mission of ridding their world of the Green Jewel monsters.
Finally, players will embark on a new mission with Conrad and Aisha inside the cyberpunk world full of dangers, mystery, and lost memories in the second part of the game “Flashback.” The first part of the game has sold more than 2 million copies and was launched in 1992.
Gamer Ahmed bin Mahfouz, who runs the channel GameDose Remake, was among the guests. He complimented the games for their modernity, saying: “Manga Production offers what the market wants in a contemporary way, which piques the interest of the audience. Take the Grendizer game, which we saw today in a variety of layouts where the main character walks, flies, and uses various weapons. It also has a deep story with a ton of options, making it a great development.”
The Manga Productions Co. owns the full publishing and distribution rights for its new games in the Middle East and North Africa region, and is proud of the work of Saudi talents and competencies in Arabizing, distributing and marketing its new games.
It aims to provide distinctive gaming experiences and leave a strong impact in the field of game development in the region.
The company produced the games “Dhafer the Hero,” “Ghoul Cave,” the virtual reality experience “AlUla Adventures,” and other works that contributed to changing the Arab entertainment scene on a global level.
It empowers talent in the gamer community through its partnerships with training and development programs with the largest international studios and companies such as Square Enix, Telltale games, and SNK.