MAKATI CITY -- Filipino fans of Electronic Arts (EA) NBA game franchise may have to wait until the end of the year or even early 2009 to play NBA Street Online game, executives said.

EA Asia executives confirmed that the game is currently in beta testing in South Korea, where EA's co-developer, Neowiz, is located.

EA Asia Vice President and General Manager Christopher Thompson told reporters that the Philippines will be one of the only four Asian countries that will do beta testing of NBA Street Online. The other countries are Korea, Taiwan and China, where basketball has good following.

The game will be published in the Philippines by iPlay, a joint venture between IP e-Games and GMA-New Media Inc.

Thompson said Asia's online gaming business has been growing steadily creating a viable opportunity for the EA to expand its market reach.

The NBA game franchise is perhaps the most significant sports-related video game in the Philippines. EA Sports' NBA Live series -- and incidentally, the NBA 2K series from rival Sega, are the most played console-based basketball games.

Many of EA's sports games also feature in-game advertisements.IPVG CEO Enrique Gonzalez said these would be one of the approaches for NBA Street Online, though their main marketing focus could come from other online and offline schemes.

NBA Street Online is based on the NBA Street Homecourt game for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles. It can be played with up to three online players. Instead of simulating real-world basketball moves, the game emphasizes heavily on tricky ball handling and acrobatic shooting techniques.

Players can create their own fully customizable avatars but it is planned that players can also play as or against game versions of NBA basketball stars.

The game will also have support for console-style controllers, instead of mere keyboard configuration.

Despite having various graphical innovations, NBA Street Online will only require a minimum Pentium 3 processor, 512 megabytes memory and about 128 MB video card.