To promote its Roblox experience, the Saudi Arabian cultural festival Riyadh Season has announced one of the platform’s largest-ever giveaways. It’s Saudi Arabia’s latest move in the nation’s ongoing effort to become a hub of the global gaming industry and community.
Since 2019, Riyadh Season has invited athletes, musicians and entertainers to perform in Saudi Arabia’s capital in a bid to promote tourism in the region. Last week, the festival launched its first-ever custom Roblox experience. Today, October 28, the creators of the experience at the creative agency Big Time Creative Shop and Roblox developer studio The Gang have announced a giveaway of one million Robux — the equivalent of roughly $7,500 — to individual participants from Saudi Arabia, the United States and the United Kingdom, with Riyadh Season funding the prize pool.
Riyadh Season’s giveaway is one of the largest Robux giveaways ever done by an individual experience on the platform, although creators like Kreekcraft have given away similar amounts of Robux in the past. Riyadh Season is put on by Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, and the festival’s Roblox experience is the latest example of the nation’s government investing in gaming, in addition to acquisitions of gaming companies including Electronic Arts and the hosting of global gaming events such as the Esports World Cup. All of these efforts are part of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 plan, a broader initiative intended to expand and diversify the nation’s economy via pillars such as gaming and sports.
By investing in a Roblox experience, Saudi Arabia is acknowledging that UGC platforms like Roblox and Fortnite will be major players in the future of gaming — and is staking its claim to a corner of this growing world.
“It certainly feels like Saudi Arabia, as part of Vision 2030, is intent on making gaming core to the nation’s infrastructure — over and above simply treating it as a growth sector of industry. This is key, as it indicates the moat they are already building: with the acquisition of EA and Scopely, and investments in Capcom and Nintendo, they are laying foundations,” said Joanne Redfern, the founder and CEO of the UGC-focused consultancy Futrhood Media, in an interview with GamesBeat. “With integration into Roblox they’re also showing that they can scale on third-party platforms too, and it hints at the intentional way they are building a comprehensive national gaming ecosystem.”
If Riyadh Season’s Roblox experience succeeds, more cultural festivals and locations are likely to follow in its footsteps. For festivals like Riyadh Season, Roblox represents an opportunity to reach younger demographic groups who might not have the means to visit in real life.
“Saudi Arabia’s new investment in Roblox seems like the perfect move to strengthen their growing position in gaming,” said Stephen Dypiangco, a Roblox brand consultant and writer of the Roblox industry newsletter Max Power Gaming. “UGC gaming on platforms like Roblox continues to grow around the world, gaining not only impressive reach and engagement, but also influence over younger generations. By placing this bet on Roblox, Saudi Arabia is getting more exposure to this high growth area of the game ecosystem.”