Garena, the gaming branch of Singapore’s Sea Limited, has announced a delay in the introduction of Free Fire India, prolonging the wait by “a few more weeks” in order to improve the gaming experience. The declaration was made on September 4.
Free Fire India, a highly anticipated battle royale game, was initially supposed to premiere on September 5. In particular, the launch of this game was greatly anticipated because it signaled its comeback after being put on hold for about 1.5 years owing to national security considerations. It’s important to note that Garena still provides a more complex version called “Free Fire Max,” which was untouched by the suspension by the Indian government.
Garena’s decision to delay the release of Free Fire in India is motivated by their dedication to providing their Indian fan base with an amazing gaming experience right away. In their statement, they emphasized the need of gameplay optimization and the need to fully localize the Free Fire India experience.
When Free Fire India first debuted on August 31, Garena proudly unveiled MS Dhoni, the former captain of the Indian cricket team, as their brand ambassador.
Vaibhav Das Mundhra, senior manager and game producer at Garena, revealed that Free Fire India is being customized as a mobile application made especially for the Indian market, with content and features catered to Indian gamers’ preferences, in a recent interview with Moneycontrol. Dhoni will also make an appearance in the game as Thala, a playable character.
Garena has joined together with Yotta, a member of the Hiranandani Group that specializes in cloud services and has MeitY empanelled status, to support Free Fire India. Through this partnership, local cloud hosting and storage infrastructure will be provided for the game. In order to improve Garena’s product offerings in India, notably in the area of esports, Yotta will be in charge of handling the personal data of Indian customers on local servers and offering network connectivity services.
In order to encourage the development of esports in India, Garena has also entered into a contract with the state of Uttar Pradesh.
Garena’s action is in line with that of rival Krafton, which in May 2023 gained approval from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to resume development of the India-only app Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), following a 10-month suspension.
Exclusively revealed by Moneycontrol on September 1 was Krafton’s successful completion of a three-month audit and acquisition of full government authorization to run BGMI. According to the report, Krafton will now undergo examinations every three months.
Free Fire, which amassed an estimated $34.3 million in app expenditure over the preceding year, was the highest-grossing mobile game in India in 2021, according to app analytics company Sensor Tower.
The rapidly expanding esports industry in India, which experienced difficulties as a result of Free Fire and BGMI’s prior bans, is anticipated to receive a big boost with their return.
India now has over a million esports players, and Manish Agarwal, the founder of Kratos Studios, the community-based gaming platform known as IndiGG, predicts that this number will increase with the revival of Free Fire. Manish Agarwal adds that low-end Android devices are particularly well-suited for the game.
According to Animesh Agarwal, the founder of 8Bit Creatives, an esports consulting and talent company, the game’s rebirth is also anticipated to have a significant positive impact on the community of content makers. He believes that by providing interesting and varied material, Free Fire India will help producers grow their fan bases inside the business. As the game regains popularity and player involvement, he predicted that sponsors would become more interested in making investments in it.
