Back in 2020, Singapore-based gaming company Garena (subsidiary of the SEA group) acquired US-based games developer Phoenix Labs for a reported USD 150 million. In our news article, we mentioned a few concerns that we had with this acquisition, citing how SEA had cut its own gaming team and directing resources to its e-commerce venture, Shopee instead.
Fast forward 3 years later, nothing was born out of this venture, with the executives of Phoenix Labs instead buying out their freedom from Garena and once again becoming an independent studio. Garena, while faltering in the gaming scene, still has Project D to fall back on with massive interest from gamers around the world. However, it would still need at least a year to see any official launch in our estimates. Oh yes, Garena is also prepping Black Clover Mobile as well.
