Delay in the Launch of Free Fire by Garena

The highly anticipated release of its battle royale game Free Fire India is being delayed by a “few more weeks,” according to Garena, the gaming division of Singaporean internet giant Sea. On September 4 the announcement was made.

The game made a reappearance after being suspended for almost 1.5 years due to national security concerns, and it was anticipated to be downloaded in India starting on September 5. It’s important to note that Garena still provides a more expensive version dubbed “Free Fire Max” that was not halted by the Indian government.

The company stated that it was delaying the release of Free Fire India so that they could provide the “best possible experience to all of our Free Fire India fans” right now.

It added in a statement that “in addition to polishing the gameplay, we are taking some time to fully complete our localization of the Free Fire India experience.”

Ms Dhoni choshen as a Brand Ambassador

On August 31, Garena first announced the launch of Free Fire India, appointing MS Dhoni, a former captain of the Indian cricket team, as its brand ambassador.

According to Moneycontrol’s interview with Vaibhav Das Mundhra, senior manager and game producer at Garena, Free Fire India would be a mobile application customised to India with features and content tailored to the country’s market. Additionally, Dhoni will appear in the game as the playable character Thala.

In order to provide local cloud hosting and storage infrastructure for Free Fire India, Garena had also teamed with Yotta, a Hiranandani Group firm and a cloud service provider with a MeitY empanelled status. To enhance Garena’s product offerings in India, notably in esports, Yotta will manage the personal data of Indian customers on local servers and network connectivity services, the business stated.

In addition, Garena has a contract with the state of Uttar Pradesh to promote the growth of eSports in India.

The action was taken three months after competitor Krafton received permission from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to restart the India-only app Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) in May 2023 following a 10-month suspension.

Read More: Jio Cinema Joined Hands with Krafton for streaming services

Krafton Completed Three Month Audit

On September 1, Moneycontrol exclusively revealed that Krafton had reportedly completed a three-month audit and been given full government clearance to run BGMI. Krafton will now be subject to quarterly evaluations, according to the story.

According to app analytics company Sensor Tower, Free Fire generated the most income in India in 2021 across Google Play and Apple’s App Store, hitting an estimated $34.3 million in app expenditure the previous year.

Free Fire and BGMI’s return to India is also anticipated to help the nation’s rapidly expanding esports industry, which was negatively hurt by their ban last year.

According to Manish Agarwal, founder of Kratos Studios, a community-based gaming platform that goes by the name IndiGG, India presently has over 1 million esports players, and this figure is anticipated to rise with the relaunch of Free Fire. Manish Agarwal also stated that the game is best suited for low-end Android smartphones.

A big boost to the makers community will also result from the game’s rebirth, according to Animesh Agarwal, founder of 8Bit Creatives, an esports consultancy and talent firm.

“Free Fire India will help producers increase and widen their fan bases inside the business by offering them a variety of engaging material. “As the game gains renewed attention and engagement, there will be an influx of investment from brands,” he said.