Tencent-backed Sea acquires Canadian video game developer to create the next global hit
- Garena, the digital entertainment arm of Sea, will help add new features to Phoenix Labs’ popular game Dauntless
Sea, the gaming-to-e-commerce company backed by Tencent Holdings, has acquired Canadian video game developer Phoenix Labs through its digital entertainment arm Garena, accelerating the Singapore-based firm’s international expansion plans.
The teams at Garena and Phoenix Labs, the Vancouver studio behind popular cross-platform action role-playing game Dauntless, will work together to pursue mobile gaming initiatives and explore new growth opportunities in markets across Asia and South America, according to a statement from Sea on Tuesday. Financial terms were not disclosed.
“Our skills sets are highly complementary,” Sea co-founder and group chief executive Forrest Li said in the statement.
The existing management team at Phoenix Labs, which was founded in 2014 and has more than 100 developers, will continue to run the studio, while bolstering Garena’s in-house content creation capabilities. Garena, one of the earliest investors in Phoenix Labs, will help add new features to Dauntless.
The acquisition comes after the successful release of Garena’s self-developed mobile game Free Fire. This battle royale title, in which a player eliminates all opponents until there is a last man standing, was the world’s most downloaded mobile game in 2019, according to app analytics firm App Annie.