Saudi Arabia eyes Moonton in fresh gaming acquisition

Saudi Arabia is pursuing another large purchase in the games industry, targeting ByteDance’s Moonton for as much as $7 billion. Its leveraged bid to take Electronic Arts private has not closed, yet broad terms for the Moonton transaction are reportedly agreed and an announcement could come as early as March.

ByteDance bought Moonton in 2021 for $4 billion, and Savvy Games Group appears willing to pay more than 50 percent above that price. Moonton’s best-known title is the 2016 MOBA Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, which has been downloaded over a billion times; the studio also released Magic Chess: Go Go, the RPG Silver and Blood, and the cooperative shooter Acecraft.

Acecraft has drawn criticism for resembling Cuphead while featuring cartoon characters such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tom and Jerry as fighter pilots, and some players have called its monetization a microtransaction-driven casino. The game went offline for all U.S.

Saudi Arabia, United States

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