Mikhail Klimentov

Editor in chief, city editor, features editor

Received some information that feels ReaderGrev story-shaped but not in an obvious way. One of those days where it'd be nice to have an editor!

Hey, hope all's well! Just following up.

Sometimes I see a take that is so dull

Huh! Kotick seems really interested in the media.

This seems bad but I can’t really think of too many examples in which corporate ownership of an upstart outlet has ended well, so just give it like, 2 years.

Turn me on with your electric eel

Wow, the end of NRG-FNC — probably the most emotional post-game I can remember. So beautiful, it’s the sort of thing you watch for.

YouTube video by pierce learning tricks

Just remembered one of my favorite videos 🙂

youtu.be/FgM6F88JtRo?...

Didn’t click into the article, first guess: Andrew Callaghan. I’m a genius.

Handing these out to all the brave agents who nabbed Tyler Robinson (his dad)

PREDICTION: No it won’t. It’ll probably sell some non-round number amount. 5,089,721 copies. Something like that.

Oh, is there TaylorSwiftball happening tonight? 🙄

All that 2016 era “we get our comedy from the news and our news from comedians” stuff looks really stupid in hindsight. Lotta these comedians are dumb as fuck!

calling supermutt DNA dogslop

Small, intangible milestone ReaderGrev cleared recently is that internet strangers cite my work from time to time! I just... get new subscribers (!!!) out of thin air despite not publishing too often, and it's because someone, somewhere, shared my work. It's new! And nice.

a spokesman for BrewDog said 'this is the one thing we didn't want to happen'

Exit Interview: Arten 'Ballatw' Esa The esteemed former Fortnite and Valorant caster talks about ditching his addiction to video games.

NEW: I interviewed @ballatw.bsky.social (who doesn't use his account) about his decision to quit esports.

Conversation took an unexpected turn toward video game addiction, and I’m really glad it did.
www.readergrev.com/p/exit-inter...

One of my favorite anecdotes from THE PREHISTORY OF THE FAR SIDE: "That doesn't sound like the Jane Goodall we know."

What Would Trans Compromise Even Look Like? (The Right Won't Accept It) Conservatives and complicit centrists have obliterated every trans compromise position, so I don't know what we're supposed to do now. How would you react if I said that puberty blockers were once th...

There are very few trans journalists able to work full time covering trans issues. Not all of my work will be trans-related but it remains my focus point. If you want to help support trans journalists, becoming a paid subscriber to my work is one way to do so. burns-notice.ghost.io/what-would-t...

Exit Interview: Arten 'Ballatw' Esa The esteemed former Fortnite and Valorant caster talks about ditching his addiction to video games.

NEW: I interviewed @ballatw.bsky.social (who doesn't use his account) about his decision to quit esports.

Conversation took an unexpected turn toward video game addiction, and I’m really glad it did.
www.readergrev.com/p/exit-inter...

Yeah, it slipped out to a few people, thankfully. I haven’t gotten it, though!

Dealing with some unfortunate email delivery issues but latest ReaderGrev is live for those who know where to look

LOOK AT THIS TRAILER

a purple cartoon character with a skull and crossbones on its chest ALT: a purple cartoon character with a skull and crossbones on its chest

it's that time again: i need work.

i'm available for blogging, copywriting, editing, interviews, criticism, just about anything in media. self-taught with over 15 years of experience and a handful of referrals from industry figureheads. let's hit the ground running.

iangwalker.com

Why Did Jared Kushner and Saudi Investors Take Over EA Games? The short answer: Entertainment is the new oil.

wrote about how the saudi govt is buying its way into games, sports, and everything else you like so that holding them to account becomes that much more costly

www.vanityfair.com/news/story/j...

Saudi comedy festival draws big names and backlash Human rights advocates and some comics say the festival, at which Bill Burr, Louis C.K., Dave Chappelle and Kevin Hart are performing, whitewashes abuses.

Wrote about the Riyadh Comedy Festival, where the setup of tell-it-like-it-is comedians who riff on cultural reservations around taboo subjects meets the awkward punchline of severe restrictions on speech.
wapo.st/46vPycf

tomorrow on readergrev if I don't get sidetracked

The PIF already owned nearly 10% of EA, which will be rolled over into the new ownership structure. The Saudi government’s investment in gaming largely via the PIF, has been in overdrive for the past four years. In January 2022, the PIF announced the $1.5 billion purchase of esports organizations ESL and FaceIt as well as the creation of the Savvy Games Group, a would-be gaming conglomerate. Savvy’s chairman is Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS). In May 2022, MBS’ Misk Foundation upped its ownership of long-running Japanese game maker SNK to 96%. In September 2022, Savvy said it would invest $38 billion into gaming. Among its goals: $13 billion earmarked “for the acquisition and development of a leading game publisher to become a strategic development partner.” In July 2023, Savvy completed a $4.9 billion purchase of Scopely, the mobile gaming company behind the hugely successful Monopoly Go. In the spend-money-to-make-money world of mobile gaming, Scopely has found itself with hundreds of millions of dollars to spend on the game’s marketing, to rake in billions in revenue. In summer 2024, the Saudi government-funded eSports World Cup kicked off, offering a “life-changing” $60 million prize pool, which was an esports record (The EWC topped themselves the year). The Cup lists Sony as a strategic partner and has featured games from Capcom, Riot, Epic, Activision Blizzard, and more.

In September 2024, Savvy CEO Brian Ward was elected as one of the board of directors for The Embracer Group, the Swedish gaming conglomerate that owns the rights to Lord of the Rings and Tomb Raider franchises. Savvy is the second-largest shareholder of Embracer. In May 2025, Savvy-owned Scopely completed its $3.5 billion purchase of most of the game portion of Niantic, including its popular mobile game Pokémon Go Also in 2025, SNK’s newest fighting game, Fatal Fury: City of Wolves, had “one of the most aggressive [marketing campaigns] we’ve seen for a fighting game,” per Fighters Generation. City of Wolves’ promotional campaign included an unusually large $2.5 million tournament prize pool, the branding of one of the year’s biggest—and Saudi-backed—boxing matches as “Fatal Fury,” and multiple and a musical number in the middle of Wrestlemania 41, the biggest event of the year from Saudi government financial partner WWE. (Despite all that hype, poor sales led to the resignation of SNK’s CEO.) In summer 2025, the eSports World Cup featured a spin-off New Global Sport Conference, which included a talk with Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot. During that talk, Guillemot confirmed a free-to-consumers mini-expansion to 2023’s Assassin’s Creed Mirage. The add-on will be set in 9th century AlUla, which is located in what is now Saudi Arabia. (Ubisoft has declined to confirm that the Saudis are financing the 2025 expansion, but Game File sources familiar with the project are under the impression it is. A Ubisoft rep told me earlier this month that the game update “was made possible thanks to the support of local and international organizations…”) Over the past several years, the Public Investment Fund has purchased large stakes of publicly traded gaming companies, holding 6.5% of EA rival and Grand Theft Auto maker Take Two, 6.6% of Capcom and 4.2% of Nintendo, among others

A rundown of Saudi government-funded investment in the video game industry since 2022

I figured it'd be impactful to see all of this in one list

From yesterday's Game File: www.gamefile.news/p/ea-saudi-a...

Who up thinking about the car chase at the end of OBAA 🙋‍♂️