Savvy Games Group CEO Brian Ward steps down just after Saudi Arabia's $55 Billion EA buyout closes

Brian Ward is stepping down as CEO of Savvy Games Group, the video game investment arm of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, according to an internal staff memo reviewed by Bloomberg News. Ward informed staff of the move in a note sent this week, framing it as a leadership transition rather than a response to any single event, writing that "this is the right time for new leadership for that evolution" as Savvy enters its next phase of growth. Turqi Alnowaiser, deputy governor of Saudi Arabia's PIF and head of its International Investments Division, will step in as interim CEO while the PIF searches for a permanent replacement.

Ward had led Savvy Games Group since its founding in November 2021, overseeing a five-year run built around an eventual $38 billion investment commitment into gaming from the PIF. Under his watch, Savvy acquired Scopely, maker of Monopoly Go, for $4.9 billion in 2023, followed by Niantic's games business, including Pokémon Go, for roughly $3.5 billion in 2025, and picked up Moonton from ByteDance earlier this year. The company also built out a major esports presence through ESL FACEIT Group and helped launch the Esports World Cup, alongside taking minority stakes in publishers including Nintendo, Take-Two, and Bandai Namco.

Departing on a career high?

Ward's departure comes just after a PIF-led consortium completed its roughly $55 billion leveraged buyout of Electronic Arts, the largest acquisition in games industry history. With two enormous Saudi-backed gaming operations now sitting side by side, questions remain about whether Savvy stays an independent global acquisition vehicle, or eventually gets restructured around EA in some way.

Before joining Savvy, Ward held executive roles at EA, Microsoft, and Activision, where, as senior vice president of worldwide studios, he oversaw the acquisition of 11 studios over eight years. Games industry commentator George Osborn told Eurogamer that Ward had "done a good job in a tough brief," pointing to the Scopely deal and Savvy's discipline in pulling back its investment in Embracer at the right moment as evidence of a sensible overall strategy.

Ward hasn't commented on whether he will also step back from his other Savvy-linked roles, including chairman positions at Scopely and ESL FACEIT Group, or from his board seats at Hero Esports, Embracer Group, and the Saudi Authority for Gaming and Esports. Savvy Games Group now employs roughly 3,500 to 4,000 people across nearly 30 locations worldwide, a scale that makes whoever eventually replaces Ward responsible for one of the largest single investment operations in the games industry.