Sea’s Free Fire India relaunch in limbo six months on

techcrunch.com:

Sea is “still making changes” and has yet to launch its popular mobile game Free Fire in India, more than six months after announcing plans to do so.

Yanjun Wang, Group Chief Corporate Officer at Sea, said during the earnings call this week that the Singapore-headquartered giant is still making changes to the game to factor in “users’ preference locally” and has “no material development” to share.

Garena, the gaming unit of Sea, announced plans to relaunch Free Fire in India in August last year. At the time, Garena said Free Fire India will be made available in the country on September 5. Garena said it had partnered with Yotta, controlled by local giant Hiranandani, for cloud and other storage needs of local users’ data in the country. It has also appointed Indian cricket icon Mahendra Singh Dhoni as its brand ambassador in the country.

Free Fire, once a beloved game in India, has left its devoted fanbase frustrated by Garena’s lack of transparency regarding the relaunch, leading many gamers to abandon the title in favor of Krafton’s BGMI.

Dont think they even care about esports in India anymore

— Yash Bhanushali (@OGYashB) March 6, 2024

Sea declined to comment.

India banned Free Fire and dozens of other Chinese apps in 2022. Days later, Sea said it was shutting down Shopee’s operations in India, months into testing the social commerce service in the country.

The testing of Shopee in India had prompted criticism from local retailers in the country. The Confederation of All India Traders, an influential lobby group for scores of offline retailers in India, had reached out to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, cautioning him that the arrival of yet another foreign player engaging in what it alleged were “unfair trade practices” will hurt the local ecosystem.