The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has announced the end of its partnership with Saudi Arabia to host the first Olympic Esports Games. As announced in mid-2024, the deal was to continue over a 12-year period, with both parties working together to host official esports tournaments within Saudi Arabia.
Now, following a review, the partnership will end. Both parties have instead ‘committed to pursuing their own esports ambitions on separate paths.’
‘This approach will be a chance to better fit the Olympic Esports Games to the long-term ambitions of the Olympic Movement and to spread the opportunities presented by the Olympic Esports Games more widely, with the objective of having the inaugural Games as soon as possible,’ the IOC said (via Reuters).
It appears the IOC will be pursuing a ‘new partnership model’ in future, in the hopes of realising its esports ambitions. It’s unclear what inspired the dissolution of its partnership with Saudi Arabia, although it’s worth noting the initial announcement was met with heavy criticism from the gaming and esports community.
While there’s no doubt Saudi Arabia has the resources to host an impressive esports tournament, given its significant investments over the last few years, plenty of concerns were raised about LGBTQ+ and women esports players safely attending tournaments in the country.
Additionally, Saudi Arabia continues to be the subject of international human rights investigations, with serious allegations facing the country and its leadership.
While Saudi Arabia has spent the last few years investing in traditional sports and assets in gaming, entertainment, and pop culture, to become a global citizen of the world and diversify its income, some have alleged this to be a form of ‘sportwashing‘ – an attempt to distract away from recent allegations.
The partnership between the International Olympic Committee and Saudi Arabia to host future esports tournaments over the next decade faced these direct criticisms – although it’s unclear if this inspired the sudden cancellation of the partnership.
What’s next for esports at The Olympics?
Whatever the case, the call means ambitions to include esports in the Olympics have now taken a step back, with a new partnership needed to continue developing the idea. As confirmed by the IOC, it will still attempt to create an ‘inclusive and sustainable international esports ecosystem’ in future, although it may now take longer than first planned.
Likewise, Saudi Arabia’s Olympic and Paralympic Committee has confirmed (via VGC) it will refocus on building on the success of recent tournaments like the Esports World Cup, and launching future events to celebrate ‘national pride, global competition, and community connection.’
We’ll need to stay tuned to see how these plans eventuate.
Also on ScreenHub: Subnautica 2 doesn’t use GenAI, despite Krafton’s ‘AI-first’ push, devs say
Subnautica 2 developer Unknown Worlds has confirmed it won’t use generative AI to continue development of this game, despite its publisher, Krafton, announcing a recent transformation into an ‘AI-first’ company.
‘Starting today, Krafton will automate work centred on Agentic AI and fully implement an AI-centred management system where members focus on creative activities and complex problem solving,’ Krafton announced in early October, to plenty of criticism.
In a Discord post to its player community (via GameSpot), community manager Donya Abramo outlined the relationship between Unknown Worlds and Krafton, while confirming a point of different in their belief in generative AI tools. While they did confirm use of AI systems within the game, these are a natural part of game development, and unrelated to generative AI (which is distinct for taking existing data sets from various sources, and mixing it into soup).
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