After games PUBG, India also blocked Free Fire's Garena on Monday (14/02/2022). India blocks Free Fire along with 53 games another relates to the Indian government's regulation of blocking China-related apps in the country.
Garena International, Tuesday (15/02/2022), confirmed the issue regarding India's blockage of Free Fire.
As a result of this blockade by India, games Free Fire is not available online on line in India both on Google Play Store and App Store. This game is also not working for players in India.
The success of Garena and Free Fire in the country follows the removal of PUBG by Krafton last September 2020 as part of a similar breach regarding the blocking games China issued by the government. Krafton itself finally released Battlegrounds Mobile India exclusively in India in July 2021.
India blocked Free Fire for violating India's IT law section 69A stating all games related to China (Beijing or Hong Kong) will be blocked.
Garena itself is a company under Sea Ltd, the same company as Shopee, which is based in Singapore.
India blocked Free Fire due to Garena's 18.7% shares which are still owned by Tencent Inc., a Hong Kong-based multinational company.
Free Fire along with games others are thought to be clones of more than 300 apps linked to Beijing, which have been banned from operating in India since 2020.
Google confirmed that Garena complied with the ban caused by the India event blocking Free Fire. Temporary service games Free Fire is blocked in India for an undetermined amount of time. Almost all the blocked versions of Free Fire in India from Google Play Store especially the Illuminate version. The Free Fire Max version is still registered and can be downloaded on the Google Play Store.
Until now, Free Fire is still not available for download and does not appear in search results when the name is typed.
Players who have previously downloaded some of Free Fire can still access and be able to play games but with limited success.
But today's latest news (16/02/2022), Indian Free Fire players can no longer access at all, with claims from games there is a technical problem.
Free Fire and Free Fire Max (enhanced version of the first) have been ondownloads more than 238 million downloads in India before the blockage in 2021. This makes India the largest source of players for Free Fire.
As one of the largest contributing countries, this blockade from India has had quite a big impact on Garena's shares and especially Sea Ltd.
Sea Ltd. recorded to date has suffered a loss of more than $16 billion or the equivalent of IDR 288.8 trillion in the value of the company's shares due to the decline in the market in India.
India is one of the biggest revenues for Free Fire and Shopee India. India's blocking of Free Fire has also caused investors to reportedly worry about the company's fate due to the recent blockage and problems for Sea Ltd. especially Garena and listed on the stock exchange has experienced a market decline of 18%.
India's decision to block Free Fire will certainly be a new challenge for Sea Ltd. in terms of geopolitical tensions as well as increasing competition from competitors with the same market as Lazada from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
Apart from the problem related to India blocking Free Fire, Garena himself is having problems with Krafton, developers for games PUBG.
Krafton sued Garena regarding Free Fire which has a resemblance to games PUBG. According to the details of the complaint, Free Fire plagiarized aspects gameplay PUBG.
Free Fire was first released under the name Free Fire: Battleground in 2017, not long after PUBG released PUBG: Battleground in 2016.
The events were later resolved between the two companies, but Krafton never signed a licensing agreement with Garena. Free Fire: Battlegrounds has finally changed its name to just Free Fire.
Garena himself has responded to Krafton's lawsuit which is considered baseless. The lawsuit is still being filed by Krafton and PUBG Santa Monica in the United States federal court.
As a result of this problem and its connection with India block Free Fire, games it is potentially threatened banned from other countries because of the many problems being faced by Free Fire.
Also read: Free Fire VS PUBG: Which is the Better Battle Royale to Play in 2022?
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