Summer Games Done Quick 2026 is now over, and while it’s been a grand time as usual, one of the group’s post-event streams – dedicated to celebrating Metal Slug’s 30th anniversary – was ended early after many viewers expressed disappointment due to developer-publisher SNK’s ties to the Saudi-owned Electronic Gaming Development Company.
Though users on social media pointed out early that GDQ’s organisation should’ve binned plans for the stream, it still went live before it was cut short following criticism from the viewers. As our peers at Rock Paper Shotgun pointed out, 2026’s SGDQ raised $2,408,701 for Doctors Without Borders, which is “an organisation who’ve worked to provide aid to people killed and wounded by Saudi-led coalition air strikes carried out in Yemen in recent years”.
Saudi Arabia has an awful human rights record, and SNK is now 96% owned by Electronic Gaming Development Company, a subsidiary of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Misk Foundation. More recently, the EGDC acquired 10% of Capcom as Saudi Arabia continues its spending spree. In 2018, the CIA claimed Mohammed bin Salman ordered the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul.
After the stream was cancelled, the official GDQ channels shared a statement, with organisers announcing they “will not accept the funds from this sponsorship or continue to work with this sponsor again”. Needless to say, an organisation that prides itself on a commitment to human rights and inclusivity should’ve been more thorough in its analysis of the partnership, especially when this conversation has been publicly happening in the gaming spheres for a while now.
“We failed to conduct the level of review our community should expect from us and that was an oversight we deeply regret and take full responsibility for,” GDQ added before apologising to the runners and stream host, “who had nothing to do with this decision”. The community response has been positive overall, yet valid concerns have been raised considering such decisions are not made overnight.
