Saudi Arabia’s mobile-gaming whales want what’s hot — even if it’s in another language

AMSTERDAM — The price of oil continues to drop, but Saudi Arabia still has cash to burn on mobile games.

Only around 30 million people live in Saudi Arabia, but that population generates approximately $350 million per year in revenues for mobile games, according to research firm Newzoo. Most of that comes from a class of megaspending men and women (commonly called “whales”) that don’t care if a game is localized as long as it’s trendy. To help further illustrate the habits of this audience, Amir-Esmaeil Bozorgzadeh, cofounder of game localizer Gameguise, took the stage at the Casual Connect Europe last week for a lecture. He helped put this esoteric player base into context of the wider $30 billion mobile gaming sector.