The Ministry of Home Affairs Monday banned 54 more Chinese apps, including popular battle royale title Arena Free Fire. The game saw some of the highest numbers in downloads last year, with a 72 percent increase in installs compared to 2020 – a while after PUBG Mobile got banned.
Interestingly enough, the developer, Arena Sea, is a Singapore-based company, but has been clubbed alongside other Chinese applications.
What is Free Fire?
Free Fire is essentially a free-to-play battle royale game in the vein of Crafton’s PUBG series, though with a smaller number of players. In this game, 50 survivors are deployed onto an island to search for weapons and supplies, as they fight amongst each other to remain the last man standing.
Similar to PUBG, as time passes, the available safe play area keeps decreasing, enclosing the remaining survivors in a tight circle – thereby raising stakes. For easy traversal, one could drive around in abandoned vehicles and look for legendary loot and supplies that are airdropped twice or thrice throughout the 10-minute session. As tempting as these crates might look, they are also an open invitation for nearby players to camp and hunt you down, since your location is exposed by the smoke emanating from them.
This was a cause for controversy last month, when PUBG developer Grafton filed two lawsuits against Arena, accusing the company of copying numerous mechanics, including the copyrighted “air drop” feature.
Players have also noted the blatant similarities between the two games, except for the way the characters are dressed. PUBG and BGM I (Battlegrounds Mobile India) take a more realistic approach, adding military equipment and clothing to the game. Arena Free Fire, however, adorns its characters in bright colors, with quirky voice lines and art style reminiscent of Fortnite.
Interestingly, Grafton also had a legal dispute with Epic Games, when they called out Fortnite for copying their battle royale format and mechanics. The case was eventually dropped, though there was no word on any settlement between the two parties.
It should be noted that the idea of ‘battle royale’ originally came from a Japanese novel of the same name by author Koushun Tatami in 1999.
How does Free Fire make money?
Generally speaking, free mobile games or apps put advertisements in them, which upon clicking or viewing adds to the total ad revenue for the company. However, online multiplayer games like Free Fire and PUBG are against this system, and prefer monetizing their product through in-game cosmetics and a battle pass system.
A battle pass essentially functions like a calendar, offering new skins and bonus items to players in exchange for earned XP. Free Fire adds daily and weekly challenges, which upon completion grants experience points that can be used to unlock exclusive rewards. Dubbed ‘Elite Pass,’ players can purchase it using 400 diamonds (in-game currency) via the in-game store.
For reference, spending Rs 89 gives you 100 diamonds, while the Rs 250 package comes with 310 diamonds. So, in order to purchase a battle pass, one will have to spend Rs 339, earning them 410 diamonds – the remainder of which can be used to buy cheaper items or saved for later.
Free fire as number one in play Store downloads in 2020-2022.that is cross in 100M+ downloads.