GameArts has announced a business partnership and capital tie-up with GungHo Online Entertainment. GameArts today issued new shares through a third party allocation, which where then acquired by GungHo. Thereby GungHo becomes GameArts' second largest shareholder, holding a 11.93% in the developing studio. The investment will be used to jointly plan and develop online games. While these games will be managed by GungHo, details regarding other services for instance, have yet to be revealed.

Despite having an impressive trackrecord of having produced two high profile game series in Lunar and Grandia, the upcoming projects will mark GameArts' first forray into online game development. GungHo Online Entertainment manages the Japanese operations of Ragnarok Online and the adult-themed MMORPG A3.

• GameWatch