In a further sign of the growing importance of the gaming industry on a global business scale, Barry Diller, who has headed up Fox and Paramount and is now the Chairman of Expedia and the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of IAC/InterActiveCorp (the parent company of businesses such as Home Shopping Network, Ticketmaster, Match.com, LendingTree, among others), is getting involved in gaming with a soon-to-be launched website called InstantAction.com, the Wall Street Journal has reported.

As part of the plan, Diller's IAC will acquire a majority stake in Eugene, Oregon-based GarageGames (responsible for the independent developer friendly Torque engine), which will help InstantAction to develop web browser-based 3-D titles.

At the same time, Diller intends to announce a multimillion-dollar fund to develop new Internet action games. The Journal said that InstantAction.com will be accepting registrations for early access to its test phase today, and the site will officially make its public launch early next year.

Although financial terms were not disclosed, GarageGames and IAC reportedly began talking about a year ago when GarageGames chief executive Josh Williams showed off the company's early-stage Web-based gaming platform to Shana Fisher, senior vice president of strategy and mergers and acquisitions for IAC. Fisher had been searching for "an opportunity beyond the already saturated market for online casual games," the Journal said. The deal itself actually closed during the first half of the year.

IAC, which according to the Journal "has sought to enter the gaming market for years," believes it can penetrate the games sector by offering games with more realistic graphics than typical casual games. Users of InstantAction will be able to play "an array of action-game titles" and they'll also be able to chat with other gamers through the service. Fisher said that InstantAction hasn't determined one business model to lean on just yet and the company will experiment with a range of models including subscriptions, advertising and charging for virtual currency.

GameDaily BIZ is expecting an interview with GarageGames later today. Stay tuned.

[UPDATE] The official announcement has hit the wire. Barry Diller commented, "We've been looking at the video game sector for years and it wasn't until we found GarageGames and their idea for InstantAction.com that we believed IAC could participate in a true internet innovation in online gaming."

"Working with IAC, we are now able to truly fulfill our vision to enable developers both large and small to deliver innovative ideas on an exciting new accessible platform for gamers," added GarageGames' Williams. "The InstantAction Fund will invest in talented teams who want to bring high-quality action gaming to everyone in the world through the internet."