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Game studio apartment Garena found itself in the middle of a geopolitical struggle when the Indian governmentbannedits hit secret plan , Free Fire , over national security fear . Now more than two years afterward , Free Fire isstillbanned , but the publisher , a division of Singapore gambling giant Sea , has found another route to the market : TechCrunch has learned and confirmed with sources that Garena is quietly developing Modern games in India with local musical theme .
Last week , Versus , a 1v1 fighting game with a Hindu mythology theme , was released on early access onGoogle Play . Neither the Play Store listing nor the plot explicitly confirm Garena ’s role in its development . However , TechCrunch found through regulative filings that the studio behind the plot — AstroTech Studio — is led by Harold Teo , one of the directors of Garena . Teo is also the global manufacturer of the pop , banned conflict royale secret plan Free Fire .
People familiar with the company state TechCrunch that the studio ’s India squad is base in Pune , and that it has been working on Versus for more than two years . Some gaming enthusiasts and people in the country ’s esports scene were give access to the title a few months ago before it was released on other access , the people sound out .
In addition to Versus , TechCrunch has learned that studio ’s Pune team is working on a biz based on cricket , the biggest sport in India by far . The party is also coming up with a title based on the classic board plot Ludo , which has retrieve a popular incarnation as a smartphone game . This game is being develop by a team base out of Mumbai .
The find of the new studio and its title highlights three things . First , India ’s ban can take a very long meter to fix — if ever — which is a major problem for companies working in the fast - go , fickle consumer market . secondly , the most challenging consumer company will await for ways to ferment around this . Third , creating localized services could be one route to induce back into the food market .
Garena does not allow its employee in India to pull off its games and studios , and it therefore has administrator from Singapore leading ontogenesis , a person conversant with the matter told TechCrunch . However , the companionship has employed a significant team in India to develop and market its titles topically .
Free Fire was a massive succeeder in India before it was banned , with market place research house estimating it had around 40 million monthly dynamic exploiter in the country . Sea had announced it wouldrelaunch the game in India last September , but the title never really drop .
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Although the specific of the ground for the banning were never spelled out , it was understood that it was allegedly colligate to home security concerns , because it used datum nitty-gritty in China . The companionship never addressed this , but at the time that it made the relaunch announcement , it read it would partner with Indian information center ship’s company Yotta Infrastructure for its cloud and storage needs .
During Sea ’s earnings call in March , group chief incarnate ship’s officer Yanjun Wang sound out the companionship wasstill making changesto Free Fire to consider “ exploiter ’ preference locally , ” though he did not reveal a timeline . A individual intimate with the matter told TechCrunch that most of the changes demand have now been integrated .
Sea and Garena did not answer to requests for comment .
