June 23, 2021 – Agate has announced their acquisition of the award-winning indie studio Freemergency. As of June 2021, Freemergency has officially joined Agate International with a deal worth billions of Indonesian Rupiah.
Freemergency is a game development studio founded in March of 2018 by six graduates of BINUS University, Jakarta. Their first game, Retrograde Arena, is a twin stick shooter with online multiplayer capabilities. In 2019, the title won Best Innovation Award and Rising Star Award in Level Up video game conference, Kuala Lumpur. Retrograde Arena has also been released for the Nintendo Switch on June 5, following its initial release on Steam.
Freemergency is the latest acquisition by Agate following their purchase of Ekuator Games in 2019. Freemergency’s experience in developing and maintaining an online multiplayer game is cited as one of the reasons behind the deal.
Freemergency team at Level Up 2019: Kristian Utomo, Alvin Ardianto Gozali, and Steven Surya Chin, alongside a Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation representative
"Ever since I and my Agate crewmates first met the folks at Freemergency back in 2018, we immediately fell in love with their product and their collective ability in producing a high-quality and immensely fun online multiplayer game. After a deep discussion with the Freemergency founders, we found out that our goals are very much aligned in terms of the types of game that we want to present to the world. That discussion continued on until we decided to sail the game industry together.”
All six members of Freemergency have officially joined Agate as part of the deal. They are Kristian Utomo (CEO of Freemergency), Steven Surya Chin (Network Programmer), Alvin Ardianto Gozali (Game Programmer and Designer), Michael Setiawan (AI Programmer), David Wiseli (Project Manager), and Ari Antoni (2D Artist). Other than Kristian, who holds a major in Business Administration and Management, the five other members graduated from the Game Application Technology major at BINUS University.
Kristian Utomo as the CEO of Freemergency has released the following statement:
“We’re excited to work together with Agate! We’ve been keeping in touch with Arief and Fandry since Freemergency’s debut in Game Prime 2018. We have similar goals in mind, and I believe that by combining Freemergency’s expertise in developing online multiplayer games and Agate’s experience in managing live service games, we can develop even better games together.“
The Freemergency team’s dream in creating more ambitious experiences alongside Agate is also shared by Steven Surya Chin, Network Programmer, and Alvin Ardianto Gozali, Game Programmer.
“We have always wanted to create a larger and more fulfilling experience, something larger in scale than what we were capable at the time. So, we consider working together with Agate to better realize that goal is the next logical move.”
About Agate
PT Agate International is leading game developer and gamified solutions provider that puts community, fun, and meaningful play at the heart of all its games. From its humble beginnings in the nascent Indonesian video game industry, Agate has grown to become one of the largest game developers in South-East Asia with a diverse portfolio of products that include Code Atma, Valthirian Arc, Memories and Levio. Agate products span all current and next-gen platforms including consoles, mobile games, VR, and augmented reality. To learn more, please visit: https://agate.id/
About Freemergency
Freemergency was established in 2018 by a group of friends sharing similar dreams. The studio’s founders took a leap of faith into the game industry to chase their dream of leaving their legacy to the world in the form of video games. Their first game, Retrograde Arena, has been published for Steam and Switch and has won awards in the Level Up 2019 convention in Kuala Lumpur. Freemergency is currently working on their second title, Action Time.
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