F2P version of Plants vs. Zombies launches in Indonesia via Antix Player

With annual growth for its $900 million-worth economy running at 6 percent, the 240 million population of Indonesia is exactly the emerging market that the big games companies are studying hard.

And some are doing a lot more than just studying it.

Linking up with cross-platform gaming provider Antix Labs, local outfit SpeedUp Technologies has announced its just launched a free-to-play version of PopCap's Plants vs Zombies in the region.

The sun is shining

As well supplying broadband services, SpeedUp sells its own tablets and smart TVs and has embedded Antix's Player software in its Pad Slim and Pad PRO 2 tablets.

It will also be pre-loaded in its new Pad 7 and Pad 8 devices, with Plants vs Zombies being the first title from western game publishers that SpeedUp expects to roll out.

Neatly, the release features operator billing, greatly increasing the potential paying audience compared to if it required credit card or pre-paid credit channels.

Win-win

"The launch of Plants vs. Zombies is a major win for SpeedUp and its customers as it represents our commitment to delivering high quality games to consumers both when connected to advanced networks in big cities, and when they are in more remote areas that lack consistent access to such connectivity," commented SpeedUp's product director Rahmad Sakti.

"I think this will be seen as a significant development by those looking to address growth and emerging economies," added Antix CEO Francis Charig.

You can also see our interview with Charig at Mobile World Congress 2013 below.