1001 Threads of Mizan arrived at Gamescom 2026 wrapped in secrecy. Its preview invitation revealed only that it was a big-budget, three-player co-operative action-adventure from veterans of major Western studios, developed quietly for several years and expected to make an impact at the show.
That mystery ended during Opening Night Live, when the game was revealed as a fantasy adventure inspired by One Thousand and One Nights, commonly called Arabian Nights in the West. Industry analyst Daniel Ahmed also highlighted that it had been developed by a Saudi Arabian game studio.
A Saudi-backed studio behind the game
The project is being developed by MBC Game Studio, a new team associated with MBC Group, formerly known as the Middle East Broadcast Center. The Public Investment Fund (PIF) owns 54 per cent of MBC Group. The company’s chairman and 36 per cent shareholder, Waleed bin Ibrahim, was among several previous owners summoned and arrested in Riyadh on corruption charges; he was later found innocent after 83 days in custody.
The game therefore sits within Saudi Arabia’s broader Vision 2030 programme, which aims to diversify the economy beyond oil. Video games have become part of that strategy, alongside investments in sport and entertainment. SNK was bought by Misk, also known as the Mohammed bin Salman Foundation, in 2022. In addition, a consortium involving PIF, Silver Lake and Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners completed a reported $55 billion leveraged buyout of Electronic Arts the month before the preview.
Those investments have prompted criticism that entertainment is being used to improve the international image of a government with a record of human-rights abuses. PIF is chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whom a US intelligence assessment concluded ordered the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi. Same-sex relationships are also punishable by death in Saudi Arabia.
For readers following the wider arcade and games business, the growth of state-backed entertainment investment is another notable trend covered in our Arcade Blog.
Questions about the game’s origins
Creative director Lars Bonde, known for work at major developers including Ubisoft, presented the Gamescom vertical slice to three journalists. He described MBC Game Studio as a global, decentralised organisation whose staff largely work remotely, with employees credited on projects from BioWare, Hi-Rez and Ubisoft.
Bonde said the concept was partly inspired by his previous work on a cancelled Prince of Persia project. He also argued that One Thousand and One Nights was an open, underused setting with global appeal and strong cultural significance. Artists working from Egypt and Riyadh, he explained, had welcomed the opportunity to represent their culture and world.
When questions turned to the project’s financing, Bonde said the team had complete creative freedom from its backers. He compared the setting with Assassin’s Creed Origins, which takes place in Egypt, and Assassin’s Creed Mirage. Later, he confirmed that the studio was self-publishing and building its own publishing division, but redirected the conversation towards the live co-op demo when asked how the venture was funded.
The question that went unanswered
The playable section focused on co-operative battles against large bosses, including a sequence in which players flew carpets through projectile patterns resembling a bullet-hell shooter. Bonde appeared more comfortable discussing those mechanics than the studio’s ownership. He said he had been the second person hired during its formation, after the CEO.
At the end of the session, the developer logo prompted a direct question about the company’s identity. Bonde confirmed that it was MBC. When asked which country the organisation belonged to, he repeatedly described the company as decentralised rather than naming Saudi Arabia.
He eventually explained that MBC stood for Middle East Broadcast, describing it as the largest media provider in the Middle East and North Africa and a major streaming operator. He said MBC wanted to enter games and that the new studio was intended to be a serious publishing and development operation. However, he did not acknowledge during the session that MBC Group is controlled by PIF and therefore linked to the Saudi government. A later report acknowledged the Saudi government or PIF’s controlling stake in MBC.
A promising premise, complicated context
In gameplay terms, 1001 Threads of Mizan offers an appealing premise: friends can team up against towering enemies and soar across desert environments on magical carpets. The preview included spectacle and a clear co-operative focus, but it left a relatively modest impression.
That does not make the game inherently poor. It does, however, make the project’s funding and ownership important parts of its story. The preview raised concerns about why a queer transgender journalist was invited to cover a PIF-backed project while direct questions about its Saudi connections were repeatedly avoided.
The episode also reflects a broader debate about the influence of PIF, Misk and other state-linked organisations across the games industry. Cultural representation can be valuable, but it does not remove the need for transparency about who funds, controls and benefits from a major production.
For anyone assessing the hardware side of interactive entertainment, RETROCADE’s arcade videos and arcade machines offer a separate look at how games are presented and played outside the traditional home-console market.
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