MANILA, Philippines -- GMA Network Inc. and IT firm IPVG Corp. announced separately on Friday that their subsidiaries would form a joint venture company, named I-Play Inc., which would engage in online gaming starting next year.

I-Play will design, operate and maintain online gaming and related portals, they said.

GMA New Media Inc. (GMA-NMI) and IP E-Game Ventures Inc., a unit of IPVG, have signed a shareholders agreement to create the new company, separate disclosures said.

Each partner will have a 50-percent stake in I-Play, they said.

The joint venture company will have authorized capital stock of P800 million and initial paid-in capital of P200 million, the disclosures said.

It will start operations in the first quarter of 2008, they said.

GMA-NMI is a wholly owned subsidiary of GMA Network operating, developing, distributing, selling and exporting various audio, visual and Internet content products.

IP E-Game operates the online gaming business unit of IPVG.

IP E-Game Ventures has “massively multiplayer online role playing games, or MMORPG, such as Granado Espada and other games, such as Audition Dance Battle, in its repertoire.

IP E-Game chief operating officer Steve Tsao said in an interview, at the launch of Audition, that online gaming markets in Asia, including the Philippines, were expected to mature in a few years.

When that has happened, they will likely turn to “casual” or simpler online games despite continued popularity of MMORPG, which started the whole online gaming buzz.

More than 200 million people worldwide play casual games via the Internet.

According to the Casual Games Association and DFC Intelligence 2006 Market Report, the “casual” games industry is expected to reach $1.5 billion in 2008.

While that is just a fraction of the huge $30 billion market of MMORPGs, IP E-Game believes that in the very near future, more people will play more simple online games, with explosive growth in emerging countries such as the Philippines. Edited by INQUIRER.net