The C stands for convergence: Gaming up at the NGSC

Gaming is increasingly taking its place in the global sports arena, as witnessed at the New Global Sport Conference (NGSC 2025) in Saudi Arabia last week.

The event is a global platform for industry leaders at the intersection of gaming, esports and sport.

It brings together CEOs, founders and investors to drive groundbreaking initiatives shaping the future of these dynamic industries.

Carl Kuhn, Executive Director Gaming & Esports, as well as a Member of the Board, at Jung von Matt SPORTS, was there…

I had the pleasure to attend the New Global Sports Conference – or NGSC – this last weekend in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

As a B2B conference accompanying the Esports World Cup (EWC), it aims to unite the worlds of gaming, sports and entertainment to connect with and learn from each other.

And learn I did.

The event is part of the Saudi government’s “Vision 2030” that aims to anchor new industries – in this instance, gaming – in the country.

And having run for only two years, the surrounding EWC seems to be doing its job: the event had a reported three million visitors this year – along with several broken viewership records online.

The government’s ongoing commitment to gaming is evident, not just in the construction of its very own district for the EWC and its prize pool of $70m+, but also in the participation of several ministers and members of the royal family as panelists at NGSC.

The message was clear: Saudi Arabia is here to stay in Gaming.

 And looking at the other panelists and partners, one could glean what “The next Game” (conference title, pun presumably intended) might be.

There were publishers like SEGA, Sony, Roblox, Ubisoft, EA, Krafton and Tencent, broadcasters like Twitch, FOX Sports and CNBC, personalities like TV’s Kate Scott, footballer Alex Morgan and chess master Magnus Carlsen.

Last but not least, star video game designer Hideo Kojima and acclaimed director Niklas Winding Refn talked about their strangely beautiful friendship and how they inspire each other’s crafts.

The uniting topic for all of them was the merging of different forms of entertainment, platforms, technologies and schools of thought – or as I would call it: the Convergence of Entertainment.

Traditional gaming IP’s, like Sonic, are going transmedia, spinning off into film IP’s that spin off into gaming IP’s yet again, prolonging product cycles.

And players become co-developers, like with the Roblox game “Grow a Garden” – which started as a fan project and had the most concurrent players of all time at 2.3 million – cross-pollinating the entire Roblox ecosystem.

The list goes on, but esports and the EWC itself is the best example – right on the edge of gaming and sports. Or was, until now: EWCF chairman Ralf Reichert used NGSC to announce a new tournament – the ENC, aka Esports Nations Cup.

Whilst the EWC focuses on players winning points for their clubs, the ENC will allow players to win for their countries in various gaming titles from 2026 onwards – much like the Olympics.

And one can assume that, much like with the Olympics, the theme of national pride will add “skin in the game” and relevance even for viewers unfamiliar with the disciplines – compensating for one of the weaknesses
of the much younger esports scene. Participating publishers EA, Krafton, Ubisoft and Tencent certainly seem to think so.

And it’s not just sports, but also art that may hold the answers on the next big thing in gaming. Gaming GOAT Kojima revealed that to create great games, he barely plays any himself.

He studies other art forms instead, adding their styles of expression to his craft instead of copying what already works within it. Or as Refn put it, new genres can only be created when we don’t “mass-produce nothingness”.

“Something new is always something strange.”, according to Kojima.

I’m inclined to agree, and strange as these two packed days in the desert may have been, I know where to look for the next big thing now: at the intersections of things that we didn’t know had one. At the convergence of seemingly distinct forms of entertainment, technology, and art.

I’ll be seeing you all at the museum.