Which country made Garena Free Fire and Free Fire MAX? Full development history of games revealed

In a major development today, the Indian government blocked 54 apps, including Garena's popular multiplayer title, Free Fire. The sudden news came as a shock to many, especially hardcore fans of the game. Before the list of banned apps even surfaced online, Garena's BR shooter was already removed from the App Store and Google Play.

While Free Fire MAX is still available on the Play Store at the time of writing this article, its future in India looks doubtful. The ban on Garena's highly successful BR shooter seems pretty strange as the ban was expected to specifically target applications backed by Chinese companies posing a potential threat to India's security.

The following section of this article will explore the development history of both the original BR game and its MAX variant.

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Free Fire and Free Fire MAX: Which country made the two games?

Indian goverment banned Garena's BR shooter today (Image via Garena)

Both games were developed by 111dots Studio, a South-East Asian indie games company, with Garena (Singapore) serving as their publisher. The beta version for the original game was released back in September 2017 and was very well-received by the mobile gaming community.

Following the positive reception due to its fast-paced BR gameplay that suited mobile phones, it was globally released in December 2017. Since its original release, Garena's popular BR shooter has grown tenfold, quickly becoming one of the most successful mobile games in India.

On the other hand, the MAX variant was introduced as the original title's advanced variant. Reportedly, developers started developing the MAX version in 2020, with the Open Beta starting in September 2020. Developers finally launched the enhanced version of the multiplayer shooter in September 2021.

Garena is an online game developer and publisher company that is also a subsidiary of Singaporean tech conglomerate, Sea Limited, with Forrest Li (Chairman, CEO) and Gang Ye (Director and COO) being its co-founders. The company has multiple other holdings and subsidiaries, with "Shopee" being the most notable name.

Interestingly, Tencent, a Chinese conglomerate, owns around an 18.7% stake in Sea Limited's Garena. Apart from that, Tencent is also linked with Bluehole (Krafton's subsidiary) and owns Timi Studios (developers of COD Mobile).