Phoenix Labs, developer of free to play action RPG Dauntless, has been acquired by Singapore-based company Garena. As part of Sea Limited, Garena is responsible for Free Fire, a popular free to play battle royale title for mobiles. Garena has also been cited as one of the earliest investors for Phoenix Labs throughout the years.
In a recent press release, Phoenix Labs CEO and co-founder Jesse Houston 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 Limited, added, “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.”
The acquisition of Phoenix Labs will mean further growth for its team along with exploring opportunities in new markets like Asia and Latina America. Mobile is undoubtedly on both companies’ minds, especially since Dauntless is currently in early development for mobile platforms. Of course, it will be interesting to see how the monetization of the Monster Hunter-like title is affected especially since it’s been pretty fair till now.
Regardless, this is good news for Dauntless fans as the game will continue to receive content. This includes more weapons and Behemoths, new regions and more features. Dauntless is currently available for Xbox One, PS4, PC, and Nintendo Switch.