Exclusive | Singapore’s gaming-to-shopping company Sea to develop more games, financial services to strengthen internet ecosystem in Southeast Asia
Sea’s decision to develop its own Garena games comes as Southeast Asia becomes one of the fastest-growing regions in gaming.
Singapore-based gaming and e-commerce company Sea plans to develop more of its own games and offer financial services as the firm looks to strengthen its ecosystem of services in Southeast Asia.
The company, which is one of Southeast Asia’s biggest gaming firms, has traditionally published game titles in the region on its Garena platform, including the international version of Tencent’s wildly popular game Honour of Kings, known as Realm of Valor in Thailand.
“We believe that it is very critical to have our own game development capabilities, which is why for the last couple of years we have been building up our skills on this side,” Maneerut Anulomsombut, chief executive officer of Sea Thailand, said in an interview on the sidelines of last week’s Techsauce Global Summit in Bangkok, Thailand.
Last year, Sea took the first step toward game development by releasing Garena Free Fire, a survival shooter game similar to Tencent’s PlayerUnknown Battlegrounds. Tencent later independently launched the game globally with developer PUBG Corp.
Sea’s decision to develop its own Garena games comes as Southeast Asia becomes one of the fastest-growing regions in gaming, with PC online and mobile game revenue reaching US$2.2 billion in 2017. Revenue is expected to double to US$4.4 billion by 2021, according to a report by market research firm Niko Partners.