Rahul SahaGarena, a Singapore-based global online games developer and publisher, has announced Indian professional cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni as its latest brand ambassador.
The free-to-play battle royale game developed by Garena, Free Fire, has also announced the launch of Free Fire India in India from September 5.
As per his agreement with Garena, Dhoni is to be recognised as the first Indian athlete to appear in-game as a playable character named “Thala”. Other notable Indian athletes, including Sunil Chhetri, Saina Nehwal, Leander Paes and Rahul Chaudhari are also set to join Dhoni in this endeavour.
Free Fire India will offer features and content specifically developed for Indian users along with a range of features designed to promote safe, healthy and fun gameplay. These include a verification system to enable parental supervision, gameplay limitations and “take a break” reminders.
Garena has also revealed that the Free Fire India Championship (FFIC) will take place later this month. The competition is open to teams from all over India, and the winners will have a chance to represent the country at the Free Fire World Series in Thailand this November.
Two slots are still available, according to Garena’s announcement of its Free Fire World Series (FFWS) 2023 slot distribution per area.
Talking about the launch, Gang Ye, Co-founder of Garena, said:
“India is home to very passionate communities of esports enthusiasts and we are excited to be able to support our fans from Bharat with the launch of Free Fire India. We look forward to providing an engaging and highly localised experience for Indian users. We believe our partnership with Yotta will ensure that our users can enjoy the highest quality gameplay experience and benefit from Yotta’s expertise in protecting and securing Indian user data. The Free Fire India Esports Championships is our first step in building out our platform of esports events and activities in the coming months to empower Indian esports athletes to succeed globally.”
Talking about the partnership, Darshan Hiranandani, Co-founder and Chairman of Yotta, said:
“Our partnership with Garena is a strong endorsement of the significant progress in the Indian data centre industry. We are pleased to bring our unique data hosting and cybersecurity expertise for the benefit of Indian users. This partnership will foster further India-Singapore technology collaboration.”
HE Simon Wong, High Commissioner of Singapore to India, added:
“Garena’s launch of Free Fire India and commitment to localising and developing the esports ecosystem locally is testament to the vibrancy of the mobile games and esports space in India, and to India’s potential for global leadership in this area. I look forward to greater partnerships in the digital media, entertainment and esports fields between India and Singapore.”
