Tamatem, the leading game publisher for emerging markets, has completed its acquisition of Playable Factory, positioning itself as the region’s first AI-first gaming platform. The move marks a significant shift in how interactive advertisements and mini-games are created across the Arab world, combining machine learning with hyper-localization to deliver games at scale.
Founded in Istanbul in 2018, Playable Factory specializes in interactive ads (playable ads) that achieve conversion rates up to 8 times higher than traditional video advertisements, with a 40% boost in user retention. The company has already produced over 90,000 interactive ads, generating more than 30 billion impressions globally. Under Tamatem’s ownership, this technology will now serve the Arabic gaming ecosystem and emerging markets beyond.
What Makes the Playable Factory Acquisition Strategic
The acquisition arrived alongside a new funding round led by Square Enix and Next Ventures, with existing investor Krafton increasing its stake. The total funding now exceeds $25 million. Berat Oguz, CEO of Playable Factory, will lead the interactive ads division under Tamatem’s umbrella, bringing deep expertise in artificial intelligence and game monetization.
For game developers and brands across the Gulf, the timing is critical. Companies like Hunger Station, Jahez, and Salla have long asked Tamatem to create branded mini-games, but the cost and timeline were prohibitive using traditional development. Playable Factory changes that equation. Hussam Hammo, Founder and CEO of Tamatem, explains the shift:
“Before Playable Factory, we had to tell brands that building a custom game would be expensive and time-consuming. Now, with AI, a brand can describe what they want and get a fully functional interactive ad in days, at a fraction of the cost. We’re working on tools where you come to us and say ‘I need an ad for Hunger Station’s Ramadan campaign that drives conversions.’ Done. In seconds, you have a complete game.”
Hussam Hammo, Founder and CEO, Tamatem
AI Integration Across Game Development
Tamatem is deploying artificial intelligence across multiple layers of its operations. In game development, AI assists in level design, localization, and audio generation in Gulf dialects. In interactive ads, AI now generates variations of a single ad campaign, scaling creative assets across sizes, colors, and cultural contexts without manual redesign. The company currently relies on hybrid workflows where teams handle the initial creative direction, then AI multiplies variations for speed and efficiency.
The real breakthrough lies in future-state dynamic difficulty. By 2027, Tamatem plans to roll out games where levels adapt in real-time based on player behavior, age, skill, and preference. Rather than static “easy, normal, hard” modes, each level will be uniquely generated for each player, fundamentally changing game design workflows. Hammo emphasizes that this shift will reshape the entire industry:
“The future of gaming is personalization. Levels won’t be designed once and locked in place. They’ll be generated specifically for you based on how you play, your age, your skill level, even your preferences. This AI-driven approach will change game development forever. Developers won’t have to think like they did 30 years ago. The game itself will evolve for each player.”
Hussam Hammo, Founder and CEO, Tamatem
Saudi Arabia’s Gaming Investment and Local Challenges
Saudi Arabia is investing over $38 billion in gaming through the Saudi Games Fund (part of the Public Investment Fund), targeting the creation of 250 game companies by 2030 and 39,000 new jobs. The kingdom now commands 20% of Middle East and North Africa gaming revenue (approximately $1.2 billion annually), with 23.5 million active players representing 67% of the population.
Yet Tamatem identifies a structural challenge holding back local studios. Most Saudi game companies are built as “studios” rather than formal companies, meaning they lack accounting, HR, legal infrastructure, and financing readiness. This model works for passion projects but fails to attract institutional investors. Tamatem, by contrast, was built as a proper company from inception, enabling it to scale, raise capital, and weather market shifts. The company advocates for consolidating fragmented studios under larger parent companies, mirroring Tencent’s model in China, rather than betting on hundreds of small independent shops most of which eventually fail.
Tamatem Plus: Financial Infrastructure for Emerging Markets
Beyond games, Tamatem Plus has become a critical payment infrastructure layer. The platform aggregates over 45 local payment methods across the Arab world, from STC Pay to credit cards, through a single API. This matters because 70% of Arab users lack traditional banking access (unbanked or underbanked populations). Tamatem Plus solves this by connecting games to local wallets and payment networks that players actually use and trust.
The company is now exploring whether Tamatem Plus can evolve into a standalone fintech product serving non-gaming sectors across MENA. While no official pivot has been announced, the infrastructure is built and proven, positioning Tamatem to become a regional payment layer for any app requiring localized transaction support in emerging markets.
What’s Next: International Expansion and Asian Partnerships
Square Enix’s investment signals Tamatem’s shift toward Asian markets. The Japanese gaming giant entered the deal as their first investment in an Arab-world company, seeking to learn the region while opening doors for Tamatem into Japanese and broader East Asian game distribution. The company already licenses and localizes Chinese games for Arab audiences. With Square Enix’s backing, Japanese titles and co-development opportunities now become viable.
Tamatem’s playbook remains consistent: source games from China, Japan, Vietnam, and AI-generated titles, localize them culturally and linguistically, then launch them to Arabic-speaking and emerging-market audiences. The Playable Factory acquisition accelerates this by enabling faster game and ad creation at lower cost.
For Saudi gamers, expect new interactive game experiences throughout 2027, including AI-narrated stories in Gulf dialect, dynamically scaled difficulty, and voice-commanded gameplay. Tamatem plans to open a significant regional hub in Riyadh, hiring substantial numbers of Saudi engineers and developers to support its regional ambitions and align with Saudi Vision 2030 targets.
