MyGame.PH, Inc.'s company revocation

The main fraud complaint where 3 of 5 incorporators were listed as having Philippine addresses.

In 2009, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the Philippines revoked the corporate registration of live service publisher MyGame.PH, Inc., the operator of the MyGame portal, after it was revealed that it was successfully registered with incorrect documentation. In the company's submitted documents, three out of five South Korean incorporators of MyGame.PH were declared as residents of the Philippines to satisfy the requirements of establishing a company in the country.

The investigation led to the revocation of MyGame.PH, Inc.'s registration. A new company, Gamesoft Technology Inc., was established to replace it. The MyGame brand was replaced by Gameclub.

• August 8, 2007: Microgaming Technology Corporation was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the Philippines. The company would later be renamed as MyGame1 Inc., and finally as MyGame.PH, Inc.
• January 2008: MyGame.PH began its public operations with the closed beta of Special Force.
• October 7, 2008: Competing publisher IP E-Game Ventures, Inc. (IP E-Game) submitted a complaint to the Enforcement and Prosecution Department (EPD) of SEC. The complaint requests the revocation of MyGame.PH's license on the grounds of fraud during incorporation. The EPD starts an investigation.
• April 23, 2009: Gamesoft Technology Inc. was registered with the SEC in the Philippines.
• May 5, 2009: The EPD concluded its investigation which confirms IP E-Game's allegation. EPD submitted a petition to revoke the corporate registration of MyGame.PH.
• June 2, 2009: MyGame.PH responded to the petition. The company's defense was based on ignorance of the requirements rather than bad faith, as the owners were South Korean nationals unfamiliar with Philippine requirements. There were no intentions to commit fraud.
• August 25, 2009: MyGame was rebranded into Gameclub, a portal operated by Gamesoft Technology Inc.
• October 7, 2009: SEC issued its decision to revoke the registration of MyGame.PH.

MyGame.PH, Inc. was a live service game publisher that started operations in 2008 with the release of the FPS Special Force. The company was the Philippine publishing subsidiary of South Korean company Liveplex Co., Ltd.

On October 7, 2008, competing live service publisher IP E-Game Ventures, Inc. (IP E-Game) issued a complaint to SEC requesting the revocation of the corporate registration of MyGame.PH. IP E-Game claimed that the Articles of Incorporation document of MyGame.PH contained false statements regarding the residences of the company's incorporators.^{[doc 1]}

The complaint revolves around Section 10 of The Corporation Code of the Philippines. The section states that "any number of natural persons not less than five (5) but not more than fifteen (15), all of legal age and a majority of whom are residents of the Philippines, may form a private corporation for any lawful purpose or purposes."

During the registration of MyGame.PH, five South Korean nationals were listed as its incorporators. Three of them were declared as having residences in the Philippines to satisfy the requirement of Section 10.

An investigation was conducted by the Enforcement and Prosecution Department (EPD) of SEC, which concluded that MyGame.PH's registration was indeed fraudulent. EPD submitted a petition on May 5, 2009, to revoke MyGame.PH's registration.

MyGame.PH responded to the petition on June 2, 2009. It explained that its incorporators were all South Korean nationals, and were thus "ignorant of the requirements and processes for registration of a corporation" in the Philippines. More specifically, it claimed the term "residence" was confused simply as "a building used as a home dwelling" rather than the legal definition of domicile (permanent home). The Philippine address listed in the original document was allegedly meant to be the work address of the incorporators when coming to the Philippines.

The main claim in the response was that MyGame.PH was registered in good faith and the incorporators had no intention to defraud, thereby fraud does not exist.

On April 23, 2009, a month before the EPD concluded its investigation, a new company Gamesoft Technology Inc. was registered in the Philippines.

On August 25, 2009, two months after MyGame.PH responded to EPD's petition, the MyGame portal was rebranded into Gameclub, a gaming portal operated by Gamesoft Technology.^[1] Publicly, there were no explanations regarding the change.

On October 7, 2009, the decision was released by the SEC to revoke the registration of MyGame.PH. In particular to MyGame.PH's response, the SEC replied with Article 3 of The Civil Code of the Philippines which states, "ignorance of the law excuses no one from compliance therewith".

The five South Korean incorporators were placed under SEC's watch list.

1. MyGame is now GameClub!. August 24, 2009. Fiesta Philippines website author. Fiesta Philippines website. Retrieved on 2023-09-20.

1. Decision in matter of MyGame.PH Inc. SEC Adm. Case No. 05-09-106