- Sea’s digital entertainment arm to acquire 100% of leading independent games studio and developer.
- Acquisition brings North America-based team of over 100 experienced AAA game developers into the Garena family.
- Both parties will build on Phoenix Labs’ world-class development capabilities and explore new growth opportunities in global markets and on mobile.
SINGAPORE & VANCOUVER, British Columbia–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Sea Limited (NYSE: SE) (“Sea” or the “Company”), a leading global consumer internet company, today announced that its digital entertainment arm, Garena, has acquired Phoenix Labs, an acclaimed independent games development company and the studio behind the popular cross-platform co-op action RPG, Dauntless. The teams intend to work together to continue building Phoenix Labs’ world-class development team, supporting the growth of Dauntless, and exploring new opportunities in global markets and on mobile. The transaction closed in recent days.
Jesse Houston, CEO and co-founder of Phoenix Labs, said, “Our partners at Garena have been our most steadfast supporters since the early days of Phoenix Labs, and we are excited to join forces with a global games leader. With this next step, we’re able to ensure that we can provide the best possible experience for Dauntless players around the world. We’re extremely excited about what the future holds for Phoenix Labs, as we continue to support our ever-growing Dauntless community and explore future games.”
Forrest Li, Founder and Group Chief Executive Officer of Sea, said, “We couldn’t be happier to welcome Phoenix Labs to the Garena family. Over the last few years, we have watched Phoenix Labs mature into one of the best development teams in the business and launch a hugely exciting title in Dauntless. We also know that they share our mission of making great games, creating the best teams, and putting players first. Our skills sets are highly complementary, and we see many exciting opportunities ahead that our teams can explore together.”
Phoenix Labs was founded in Vancouver in 2014 by veteran game executives with a track record of working on some of the world’s best-known game franchises. It now has a team of more than 100 developers with decades of experience in building world-class AAA games across its offices in Vancouver, Canada, San Francisco, and Seattle, Washington. The studio launched its debut title Dauntless, a cross-platform co-op action RPG, in 2019.
Headquartered in Singapore, Garena is a global leading games developer and publisher. It had more than 320 million quarterly active users in the third quarter of 2019. Its self-developed title, Free Fire, is one of the world’s most popular mobile games and was the most downloaded mobile game globally in 2019 according to App Annie. Garena was one of Phoenix Labs’ earliest investors and has supported the growth of the company and the development of Dauntless over the last several years.
Following the acquisition, the existing management team at Phoenix Labs will continue to run the studio. In addition to bolstering Garena’s in-house content creation capabilities, the partnership allows Phoenix Labs to tap into Garena’s global network and unique strengths in mobile games and community building. The companies will work together to continue adding new features to Dauntless and explore new growth opportunities in markets such as Asia and Latin America, and on mobile.
About Sea
Sea Limited (NYSE: SE) is a leading global consumer internet company founded in Singapore in 2009. Our mission is to better the lives of consumers and small businesses with technology. We operate three core businesses across digital entertainment, e-commerce, and digital financial services, known as Garena, Shopee, and SeaMoney, respectively. Garena is a leading global online games developer and publisher. Shopee is the largest pan-regional e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia and Taiwan. SeaMoney is one of the fastest-growing digital financial services platforms in Southeast Asia.
For more information, visit www.seagroup.com.
About Phoenix Labs
Phoenix Labs is a game company based in Vancouver, British Columbia with offices in San Mateo, California and Seattle, Washington. The company was founded in 2014 to create games for its passionate community and evolve the way great games are made and enjoyed. They aspire to create new AAA gaming experiences that their community will share for years to come. Their debut title, Dauntless, a co-op Action RPG, is developed by a veteran team from BioWare, Riot Games, and other acclaimed studios. For more information on Phoenix Labs and to view open positions, please visit https://www.phoenixlabs.ca/.
Forward-looking Statements
This announcement contains forward-looking statements. These statements are made under the “safe harbor” provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as “will,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “future,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes,” “estimates,” “confident,” “guidance,” and similar statements. Among other things, statements that are not historical facts, including statements about Sea’s beliefs and expectations, the business, financial and market outlook, and projections from its management in this announcement, as well as Sea’s strategic and operational plans, contain forward-looking statements. Sea may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in its periodic reports to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), in its annual report to shareholders, in press releases, and other written materials, and in oral statements made by its officers, directors, or employees to third parties. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement, including but not limited to the following: Sea’s goals and strategies; its future business development, financial condition, financial results, and results of operations; the growth in, and market size of, the digital entertainment, e-commerce and digital financial services industries in the region, including segments within those industries; changes in its revenue, costs or expenditures; its ability to continue to source, develop and offer new and attractive online games and to offer other engaging digital entertainment content; the growth of its digital entertainment, e-commerce and digital financial services businesses and platforms; the growth in its user base, level of user engagement, and monetization; its ability to continue to develop new technologies and/or upgrade its existing technologies; growth and trends of its markets and competition in its industries; government policies and regulations relating to its industries; and general economic and business conditions in the region. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in Sea’s filings with the SEC. All information provided in this press release and in the attachments is as of the date of this press release, and Sea undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as required under applicable law.
Contacts
For Garena/Sea:
Investors / analysts: ir@seagroup.com
Media: media@seagroup.com
For Phoenix Labs:
Andy Burt
925-212-6225
aburt@phxlabs.com