Sea is still in the process of making changes to its popular mobile game Free Fire before launching it in India, more than six months after announcing plans to do so.
Yanjun Wang, Group Chief Corporate Officer at Sea, mentioned during an earnings call this week that the company is adapting the game to suit local user preferences and currently has no significant updates to share.
Garena, the gaming division of Sea, announced its intention to reintroduce Free Fire in India in August last year. The initial plan was to make the game available in the country on September 5. Garena had also collaborated with Yotta, a company owned by Indian conglomerate Hiranandani, for cloud and storage services for local user data. Additionally, Indian cricket icon Mahendra Singh Dhoni was appointed as the brand ambassador for the game in India.
Despite being a popular game in India, Free Fire has left fans disappointed due to Garena’s lack of transparency regarding the relaunch, prompting many gamers to switch to Krafton’s BGMI.
Sea declined to provide further comments on the matter.
India had banned Free Fire and several other Chinese apps in 2022. Shortly after, Sea announced the closure of Shopee’s operations in India, following months of testing the social commerce service in the country.
The testing of Shopee had garnered criticism from local retailers, prompting the Confederation of All India Traders to reach out to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, expressing concerns about the impact of foreign players engaging in what they deemed as “unfair trade practices” on the local ecosystem.
