Founded by former Riot Games and BioWare employees, the Vancouver based company Phoenix Labs quickly amassed over a 100 employees in offices in San Francisco, and Seattle along with their Vancouver headquarters. Phoenix Labs is most notable for their 2019 release of free to play game; Dauntless. Dauntless is fantasy take on the Monster Hunter formula, using vibrant colors and cartoon-esque art-style.
The Canadian developers were recently acquired by one of their early investors, the Singapore based publisher Garena who is a subsidiary of the internet company Sea Limited. Both companies have not shared any financial details of the transactions. Phoenix Labs has promised to continue to support Dauntless as well as expanding the more into Asia and Latin America.
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.
Phoenix Labs co-founder and current CEO Jesse Houston commented, “With this next step, we’re able to ensure that we can provide the best possible experience for Dauntless players around the world.” On top of supporting Dauntless, the two companies are exploring options to bring the game to mobile.
“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.” Said founder and CEO of Sea Limited, Forrest Li, “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.”
Garena primarily distributes games across Southeast Asia and Taiwan, including Riot Games’s hit League of Legends. Garena has also developed and self published mobile title, Free Fire, which amassed 320 million active players world wide.