Visitors play a basketball video game at the Games Convention Asia 2008 in Singapore. A regional video game expo opened Thursday here on a positive note despite global financial turmoil, with industry players predicting online titles will generate robust growth in coming years.

A regional video game expo opened Thursday here on a positive note despite global financial turmoil, with industry players predicting online titles will generate robust growth in coming years.

The Asia-Pacific region accounts for 15 billion US dollars of the gaming industry's global turnover of 50 billion dollars, said Seto Lok Yin, assistant chief executive officer of Singapore's Media Development Authority, a government agency.

"This figure is expected to increase to 25 billion dollars in the next few years," Seto said in a speech to open the Games Convention Asia 2008 conference and exhibition.

The three-day gathering, now in its second year, features 118 exhibitors from 13 countries and is expected to attract about 100,000 visitors, organisers said.

Major exhibitors include industry giant Electronic Arts (EA) and Ubisoft, both which are games publishers, along with hardware manufacturers Asus and Logitech.

Hands-on stations where visitors can test online games take up a large chunk of the exhibition space.

Visitors play a race car video game at the Games Convention Asia 2008 in Singapore. A regional video game expo opened Thursday here on a positive note despite global financial turmoil, with industry players predicting online titles will generate robust growth in coming years.

"The industry is doing very well and we are happy to be part of it," Jon Niermann, president of EA Asia-Pacific, told a news conference.

EA announced it was launching its popular multi-player fantasy combat game, Warhammer Online, in Asian markets on Friday.

The company publishes a number of leading titles, the latest versions of which are soon to be released worldwide. These include: FIFA 09, NBA Live 09 and Need For Speed: Undercover.

Also set for release in the region is EA's much anticipated music simulator Rock Band, as well as the company's stable of games designed for the Apple iPhone, which was recently launched in Asia.

© 2008 AFP