Riyadh-based mobile game developer and publisher Sandsoft is closing, we understand.
Mobilegamer.biz sources claim that the Saudi firm is shuttering completely after a first wave of layoffs this summer. The Saudi family that owns the company simply decided to pull the plug on the firm, we’re told, and staff we have spoken to at the firm have been told to be very careful about explaining the reasons for their departure publicly.
Some former Sandsoft staff have quietly updated their LinkedIn profiles to show they are now looking for work or are currently unemployed, but a few staff have announced they are no longer with the company, but did not explain why.
No-one at Sandsoft has responded to repeated requests for comment and confirmation, made over the course of the last month. We will publish the company’s response here if or when we receive one.
As we reported previously, Sandsoft closed its game development studios in Barcelona and Riyadh in July. At the time the company said it would now focus exclusively on publishing, but now, it seems, the whole company is being closed.
Sandsoft is part of a wider network of businesses owned by a Saudi family, CEO David Fernandez Remesal told us in 2023. It was not part of the Public Investment Fund – the one behind Scopely owner Savvy Games Group – but it did have some government assistance in-line with Saudi Arabia’s efforts to diversify its economy overall.
Sandsoft opened its Riyadh studio in 2022, and then snapped up Madbox, Socialpoint and Gameloft veteran Alexandre Besenval to lead its new Barcelona studio in 2023. Earlier that same year, Sandsoft Games CEO David Fernández told us that he had a five year plan to become the Middle East’s mega publisher.
“Our ambition is to be a leader in the mobile games industry, from our region to the world, in the same way that you have in the US not just mobile, but larger organisations – you have the Activisions, you have the Take-Twos, you have Electronic Arts,” he told us. “Looking to China, you have Tencent and you have NetEase. We want to be one of those.”
