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Garena is spinning Phoenix Labs as a result of an investor-backed management buyout, GamesBeat has learned.
Phoenix Labs is the creator of Dauntless, a free-to-play game that has scored tens of millions of players. Based on that game, Garena, a division of Singapore’s Sea, acquired Phoenix Labs in 2020.
Now the Phoenix Labs founders will delist the company as part of a plan to unlock the company’s potential. Garena is the creator of Free Fire, a popular shooting game.
Going forward, Phoenix Labs will operate independently of Sea, as Phoenix Labs told staff yesterday. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed. In 2020, Garena paid $150 million for Phoenix Labs.
Phoenix Labs was founded in 2014 in Vancouver by veteran game executives with a track record of working on some of the world’s best-known game franchises. Jesse Houston served as CEO. It formally launched the monster hunting game Dauntless in May 2019 and had millions of users within a week. Sea was an early investor in Pheonix Labs.
The team recently unveiled Fae Farm, a farming life simulator, which is expected to release on Switch in 2023.
In a statement, Sea said, “We have been steadfast supporters of Phoenix Labs since the beginning and will continue to be strong advocates for their team and their work going forward. We are confident this is the right path to enable the team to continue their long-term potential, and we wish the team every success for this next chapter.” Sea is currently more focused on profitability.
As for the next game, Phoenix Labs is working on Fae Farm as a Nintendo Switch exclusive and is expected to debut in Q2 2023.
Built with cooperative experiences in mind, it enables seamless drop-in, drop-out play over online and local wireless connections, so players can easily build farms, complete missions, and adventure together.
On the gameplay, Phoenix Labs said, “Players take on the role of an adventurer who is invited to join a friendly community and create a home while restoring harmony to the land of Azoria. Alone or with friends, players build their homes, explore varied environments, collect resources and probe the depths of the world to discover the magic they need to rebuild Azoria.”
The development team described it as “a love letter to farming and living sims they’ve enjoyed for years.”
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