Garena Free Fire Is Coming Back to India After Ban

After the popular mobile battle royale title, Garena Free Fire was shafted by the Indian government and banned, numerous fans were distraught. Now, after a year of its absence, Garena is officially relaunching Free Fire under a new name, Free Fire India. Have a look at the details.

Free Fire India Plans Its Triumphant Return

Following in the footsteps of Battlegrounds Mobile India, the Singapore-based game company has announced the relaunch of the title for Indian players. Garena plans to launch Free Fire India on September 5, 2023, with India-specific features.

We’ve seen some of them in the official relaunch of Battlegrounds Mobile India earlier this year. For starters, the game will support Yotta’s cloud-hosting infrastructure in India. The MeitY-empanelled company will take responsibility for storing and protecting the personal data of Indian gamers. Furthermore, Yotta aims to provide local servers and network connectivity for future Free Fire events in the country.

Apart from data collection changes, the game will offer India-specific content and to promote safe gaming, the game will have a verification system to enable parental supervision, gameplay limitations, and break reminders.

For outreach initiatives, MS Dhoni, the famed Indian Cricketer, officially becomes the ambassador for the game. Dhoni will also get added to the game as a playable character called “Thala.” It doesn’t end there, as Indian Football team captain Sunil Chhetri, Badminton Champion Saina Nehwal, Tennis legend Leander Paes, and Kabbadi Champion Rahul Chaudhari will also enter the game.

Finally, Free Fire India will host a flagship tournament later this month. This will be an open challenge to every team in the country, and winners get to represent the country at the Free Fire World Series in Thailand.

Earlier, the Indian government instructed the Singapore-based Garena to take down the survival shooter for Android and iOS off the Indian app store and PlayStore as the Indian government started cracking down on China-affiliated apps. The reason was that user data were stored at a China-based cloud service provider, raising security concerns.

Gang Ye, Co-Founder of Garena, looks forward to “providing an engaging and highly localized experience for the country’s users.” He believes the partnership between Yotta will ensure the highest quality gameplay experience and data protection. Furthermore, the company is committed to developing the Indian esports and startup ecosystem. The planned tournament is the first of its many planned initiatives.

Finally, Yotta co-founder and chairman Darshan Hiranandani commented on the partnership. He claims the Garena partnership is a “strong endorsement of the progress in the Indian data center industry.” He also claims that this partnership will foster further India-Singapore technology collaborations.

While we did not receive official confirmation on the platforms, we can assume that the game will launch on the Google Play Store and App Store. Furthermore, the government has not clarified whether the game is getting launched on a provisional basis, like Battlegrounds Mobile India. Its supposed exemption from the same might come from the partnership between Yotta and Garena. Regardless, we are keen to see how the game develops and its esports growth in the country.