Games Mobile

Ban on Garena ‘Free Fire’: Gaming industry experts and Twitterati weigh-in

15/02/2022
Poonam Mondal

The Ministry of Home Affairs has recommended a ban on 54 Chinese mobile applications, including the popular game Garena Free Fire. Although Garena Free Fire is created by a Singapore-based company, it falls under the “security threat” category as per the government.

Free Fire was the most downloaded mobile game globally, a highly engaging battle royale game and it has garnered a massive prize pool in its regional, national and international tournaments. The news has come as a shock, as the game has a loyal fan base and has earned a lot of fame.

Post the ban of PUBG Mobile, the growth of FreeFire skyrocketed as many PUBG Mobile players were hunting for similar games and Free Fire was a savior for them. In fact, the five hour long gaming livestream of the FreeFire World Series Final in 2021 became one of the most popular videos in India last year as per YouTube.

Earlier, on 25 December 2021, Krafton had sued Garena Free Fire and filed a lawsuit against Google and Apple for permitting the game to be in their respective app stores claiming that some of the elements of the game have been copied from PUBG Mobile including game structure as well as an airdrop feature.

“On receipt of the interim order passed under Section 69A of the IT Act, following established process, we have notified the affected developers and have temporarily blocked access to the apps that remained available on the Play Store in India,” a Google spokesperson said as per ET reports. The reason for this ban could be because of the lawsuit filed by Krafton.

Here’s what industry experts think about the entire scenario:

Anurag Khurana

Penta Esports founder and CEO Anurag Khurana shared, “Free Fire is one of most popular games in India with a large user base. Apart from this, the game is a very popular esports title with a year long esports roadmap and has a lot of professional teams and content creators associated with it. This ban will surely have ramifications for all stakeholders of the esports industry in India and those associated with the title.”

Sagar Nair

Qlan co-founder and CEO Sagar Nair shared, “The Free Fire community is one of the largest and fastest-growing esports communities in India. The sudden banning of the game has surely blindsided a massive number of gamers. We’ve seen this happen before with the PUB G ban and if we are to learn from it, it seems like it may as well be a long-drawn battle to bring back the game. While the community handles this setback, gamers do have an alternative in the form of Free Fire Max which is still available for download. Unfortunately, it’s mostly a wait and watch game here till we learn more.”

Lokesh Suji

Esports Federation of India director and Asian Esports Federation (AESF) vice president Lokesh Suji commented, “It has come as a bolt from the blue for the Indian esports community, especially for the much popular Free Fire esports athletes who have been competing at national and international platforms and connecting with their fans through the virtual setups.However, there is no need to be disappointed, we believe this will diversify the gaming industry as new players will be introduced and will encourage homegrown video gaming developers, allowing them to curate games based on Indian ethos and culture and showcase Indian capabilities when it comes to developing world-class video games. We fully support this and will fully support any such decisions taken by our government, when it comes to safeguarding national integrity and security. The Indian esports industry has been in the wherewithal situation in the past but that never stopped them from growing and never will as we are not dependent on one game.”

Vishwalok Nath

World Esports Cup and Esports Premier League (both tournaments were played with game Free Fire) director Vishwalok Nath shared, “We hope that Garena can work with the Government of India to address the concerns raised around Free Fire. We have seen this happen in the past where titles made their way back after fixing the compliance issues. The entire creator and esports community around Free Fire is waiting for a positive and quick resolution to the move.”

Here’s how Twitterati reacts