Ash Games raises $1.5 Million as Saudi gaming money reaches the studio floor
Saudi Arabia-based Ash Games has closed a $1.5 million Seed round co-led by Merak Capital and Impact46, invested through the Merak Gaming Fund, with the capital going towards development and international release of the studio’s first console titles.
Why it matters: Saudi Arabia has committed more capital to gaming than any sovereign investor in history, and almost all of it has gone to buying companies that already exist somewhere else. A seven-figure cheque into a Riyadh studio with 18 people and an unreleased console game sits at the opposite end of that spending, where the Kingdom’s stated targets are hardest to hit.
The context: Savvy Games Group, wholly owned by the Public Investment Fund, was set up in 2022 with a $38 billion mandate. It bought Scopely for $4.9 billion in 2023, added ESL FACEIT Group in esports, and Scopely went on to acquire Niantic’s games business for $3.5 billion in May 2025. The National Gaming and Esports Strategy attached to that spending targets 250 gaming companies, more than 39,000 jobs, over 30 globally recognised games, and SAR 50 billion in GDP contribution by 2030. Acquisitions have delivered ownership at speed. Studios of the kind that produce those 30 games have to be grown, and that is where the domestic pipeline has been thinnest.
● Anas Bakhsh, Yaser Alahmadi and Saud Bakolka founded the studio in 2022.
● Nomad, an action-adventure roguelite drawing on Ancient Arabian mythology, is scheduled for PC, PlayStation and Xbox in 2027.
● Azooma Escape, a stealth-comedy title, takes its material from everyday Saudi life.
● The team works remote-first, with 18 employees.
● Use of funds: development capability, hiring, and international publishing and commercialisation.
Console development consumes capital at a rate that makes $1.5 million a modest runway, and a 2027 release date on a first title from a four-year-old studio carries the slippage risk every console project carries. Merak and Impact46 are effectively underwriting the gap until either a publishing partner or a follow-on round appears.
The bottom line: Cultural specificity is what Ash Games is selling, and it is also the commercial question. Nomad has to work for a player in São Paulo or Seoul who has no reference point for the mythology it draws on. If it does, the Kingdom acquires something its $38 billion has not yet bought, which is proof that Saudi studios can produce for the world rather than for the region.
