WE'RE TALKING ABOUT CRAFTING, YOU PERVERTS.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/rfn/73090/episode-950-nice-quality-of-life-for-the-sickos
I spent a lot of the show this week trying to articulate the difference between the Public Investment Fund (PIF) and the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) of the Saudi government. I think I erred in two parts here: one, the PIF is a SWF and I treated them as distinct. Two, in not recognizing the PIF is a special version of a SWF, I understated why the PIF "special." That distinction goes to the heart of question we were asked, and probably could have saved us immense time in trying to answer it in the least bombastic way possible.
Basically, a SWF is a place where a government can stash its surplus revenues - something I can only assume is possible, having never seen such things as an adult - for future emergencies. The goal is to grow the surplus so it can be leveraged if the need arrives in the future. The Saudi PIF is a SWF, but it has an additional mandate - the investments it makes should drive domestic economic growth.
We do touch on this point fairly extensively, but we could have got there sooner. Hence, I'm clarifying it here.
That mission is important when looking at what investment vehicles they pursue. A sports team based in England can only drive so much economic development 3000 miles away, but a multi-national company can create industry jobs anywhere. It would be wise to assume as little as possible would be done to hurt the brands because protecting this kind of investment isn't enough: the goal is to drive economic growth at home - and so these investments need to become even more vibrant to create the targeted domestic growth.
But, it would also be understandable if the association was enough to put people off. It's a risk I'm sure was factored into everything.
That said, it must be nice to be an investment firm with an in to an unfathomably wealthy monarchy.
You might have surmised, but we are very email heavy this week. Jon returns and we spend the entire first segment on Saudi Arabia's role in taking Electronic Arts private. There's a lot of nuance to this conversation - which we are almost certainly not the best choice to provide - and yet provide it we try. I'd say do but... it's RFN.
After a much-needed break we are asked to continue our quest to do the intractable: make Metroid popular. By that, I mean the series, not the brain parasites. There's another politically risky joke I could make here, but we're just ignoring those in this article today.
That's it for email. We answered two entire questions. We're really bad at this. You can make our situation worse. I assume this link works now.
We did save enough time to go through the unexpected Animal Crossing: New Horizons update and to mock Capcom for announcing an unseeable Resident Evil Requiem amiibo and a truly horrific Switch 2 Pro Controller.
Never change, Capcpom.
- (00:04:29) Listener Mail - "EA acquisition" used to mean something else.
- (01:04:51) How to make Metroid popular.
- (01:46:48) Animal Crossing gets an update.
- (02:00:22) Resident Evil 9 junk.
Topic: Episode 950: Nice Quality of Life for the Sickos (Read 36 times)
