Games Done Quick Cancels SNK Sponsorship Live On Stream Following ‘Human Rights Concerns’ Raised By Fans

Games Done Quick, the much-beloved speedrunning charity event created in 2010, announced and subsequently cancelled a collaborative speedrunning showcase with SNK on July 12, midway through a livestreamed Metal Slug speedrun.

The “speedrunning showcase” event was announced yesterday in the early afternoon, with GDQ’s post stating that they were “excited to be working with SNK to celebrate” Metal Slug’s 30th anniversary. Less than three hours later, SDQ announced that the sponsored stream had been cancelled, following “concerns” raised by the community regarding SNK’s majority owners, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.

“We have heard the concerns from our community regarding this partnership, specifically the company’s majority ownership by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, and the human rights concerns tied to the Saudi government,” reads GDQ’s post on Bluesky. “We will not accept the funds from this sponsorship or continue to work with this sponsor again. GDQ is committed to supporting human rights and inclusivity, and we recognize that this partnership conflicted with those values.”

At the time of the sponsored stream’s cancellation, the speedrunners had already begun and completed one of the scheduled Metal Slug runs planned for the event. As a result, one of GDQ’s event organizers had to interrupt the livestream to announce that the upcoming Metal Slug runs would not be going forward.

SNK Corporation, the developer and publisher behind the likes of the Fatal Fury, King of Fighters, and Metal Slug franchises, was purchased by the Misk Foundation in 2022. The Misk Foundation was founded by Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi Arabian government has been criticized for dozens of human rights violations over the past two decades, including torture, the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, gender apartheid, the criminalization of LGBTQI+ relationships, and a rise in slave labor. GDQ apologized for the rapidly cancelled partnership, acknowledging that it had “failed to conduct the level of review [its] community should expect” when accepting the sponsorship deal.

This slip-up came the day after Summer Games Done Quick, GDQ’s annual, week-long speedrunning marathon raising money for Doctors Without Borders, concluded for the year. This year’s event, which was jam-packed with impressive and entertaining runs, raised $2,408,701 for the charity.