Garena, the gaming arm of Singapore tech giant Sea, is postponing the much-anticipated launch of its battle royale title Free Fire India by a 'few more weeks', the company said on September 4.
The game was expected to be available for download in India starting September 5, marking its comeback after being suspended for about one and a half years over national security concerns. It's worth noting that Garena also continues to offer a more premium variant called 'Free Fire Max' that was not suspended by the Indian authorities.
The firm said it was postponing the launch of Free Fire India to ensure that they can offer the "best possible experience to all of our Free Fire India fans" from the beginning.
"In addition to refining the gameplay, we are taking some time to fully complete our localisation of the Free Fire India experience" it said in a statement.
Garena had first announced the launch of Free Fire India on August 31, roping in former Indian cricket captain MS Dhoni as its brand ambassador.
Vaibhav Das Mundhra, senior manager and game producer at Garena, had told Moneycontrol that Free Fire India will be an India-exclusive app, with features and content that are specific to the local market. Dhoni will also be featured in-game as a playable character called ‘Thala’.
Garena had also partnered with Yotta, a Hiranandani Group company and a MeitY empanelled cloud service provider, for local cloud hosting and storage infrastructure for Free Fire India. Yotta will manage the personal data of Indian users on local servers and network connectivity services to support Garena’s product offerings in India, including in esports, the company said.
Apart from this, Garena had signed an agreement with the Uttar Pradesh government to drive the development of Esports in India.
The move came three months after rival Krafton had secured an approval from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to resume the India-only app Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) on a three-month trial basis in May 2023, after a 10-month suspension.
On September 1, Moneycontrol exclusively reported that Krafton is learnt to have received full government approval to operate BGMI after it passed a three-month audit and will now be subjected to quarterly assessments.
Free Fire was the highest revenue generating app across Google Play and Apple's App Store in India in 2021, clocking an estimated $34.3 million in app spend last year, according to app intelligence firm Sensor Tower.
The return of Free Fire, along with BGMI, to India is also expected to boost the country’s fast-growing esports industry, which was severely impacted by their suspension last year.
India currently has over 1 million esports players, and this number is expected to grow with the relaunch of Free Fire, as the game is best suited for low-end Android devices, said Manish Agarwal, founder of Kratos Studios, a community-based gaming platform that operates under the IndiGG brand.
Animesh Agarwal, founder of 8Bit Creatives, an esports consulting and talent agency, said the game's relaunch will also give a significant boost to the creators community.
"By providing creators with diverse and immersive content, Free Fire India will enable them to grow and expand their fanbase within the industry. As the game gains renewed attention and engagement, there will also be an influx of interest as well as investments from brands into the ecosystem" he said.
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