Benjamin Kratsch has spent four years inside Saudi Arabia's push to build the world's biggest games and esports publisher. As Chief Business Development Officer at Levelz Gaming Group in Riyadh, he explains what the kingdom wants from its $55bn buyout of EA, why distribution is king, and where the capital goes next. Ben has worked with PIF on Saudi Arabia's national games and esports strategy, on M&A and pipeline, and on bringing publishers to the table for Gamers8 and the Esports World Cup. He talks through the thinking behind the kingdom's moves in games, esports, Hollywood and theme parks, and gives a frank read on the rest of the industry.
In this conversation:
- Why Qiddiya is being built as a Disneyland for gaming
- The maths pulling publishers back to single-player: a $200m game returning $750m at launch, against a live service chasing a $3bn case
- 007 First Light's roughly 4 million sales on a $200m budget, why Ben thinks it deserved 10 to 20 million more, and what Amazon's next Bond could do for the franchise
- Phil Spencer's Netflix-of-gaming bet, and how Asha Sharma's data-driven Xbox differs
- The licensing logic behind the EA deal, and why EA F1 has more room to grow than EA Sports FC
- Why PIF won't buy Xbox, and why sovereign capital doesn't hand out $20m cheques to friends
- How a Game Pass playtime KPI shaped Doom: The Dark Ages, and what happened when the KPI switched to revenue close to launch
CHAPTERS
0:00 Intro
0:52 Four years inside Saudi's national games strategy
2:41 From "why Saudi?" to "how can we partner?"
7:29 Qiddiya and the case for gaming theme parks
10:28 The maths pulling publishers back to single-player
15:06 007 First Light and the distribution gap
18:42 Phil Spencer, Asha Sharma and the Netflix-of-gaming problem
25:52 Battlefield x Top Gun and EA's Hollywood pipeline
31:00 Why PIF wanted EA: football clubs and F1 teams
33:48 Serve the core fans first: Battlefield Labs and Dragon Age
36:26 EA's back catalogue, Titanfall 3 and the next wave of M&A
49:14 Why PIF won't buy Xbox
52:38 When playtime became the KPI
54:24 What Netflix should do with games
1:05:01 Giving developers real upside
ABOUT BENJAMIN
Benjamin Kratsch is Chief Business Development Officer at Levelz Gaming Group, building the games and esports ecosystem in Saudi Arabia, with a focus on venture capital. He has spent 15 years in media and marketing, building content products for IDG and Red Bull Media House, consulting on games and esports TV for NBC Universal and NBC Sports, and running campaigns for brands including Samsung, Aston Martin and Aramco. In Saudi Arabia he worked with PIF on the national games and esports strategy and served as Creative Director on Gamers8, which drew 3 million visitors over two months.
LINKS
Benjamin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminkratsch/
Levelz Gaming Group: https://www.linkedin.com/company/levelz-gg/
Esports World Cup: https://esportsworldcup.com/en
Related episode: Shawn Layden on platforms and publishers (Ep 97): https://youtu.be/afg_CbpKvw8
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ABOUT PURPOSE MADE
The Purpose Made Podcast is hosted by Peter Bell, founder of Purpose Made, a franchise architecture and IP strategy consultancy. Long-form conversations with the people who build games, films and the IP around them.
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Websites: https://purposemade.uk | https://purposemadepodcast.co.uk/
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