GGRAsia – City of Dreams Manila opens virtual reality zone

City of Dreams Manila opens virtual reality zone

Oct 15, 2018 Newsdesk Latest News, Philippines, Top of the deck

City of Dreams Manila investor Melco Resorts and Entertainment (Philippines) Corp, which recently pledged commitment to the Philippine casino market despite the firm wish of its own main investor to buy back its public stock and delist from the country’s bourse, has said in a filing the resort opened on Sunday a new virtual reality game zone.

The virtual reality technology at the City of Dreams Manila resort (pictured) has been supplied by Japan’s Bandai Namco Amusement Inc.

The area, which also includes food and drink outlets referred to as a “food park”, covers 2,714 square metres (29,213 sq feet) on the upper ground floor of the casino resort, and has a 563-seat capacity, according to a press release filed with the Philippine Stock Exchange.

Kevin Benning, City of Dreams Manila’s chief operating officer, was quoted in the document describing the facility as “a first of its kind in the country”.

One of the games on offer at the facility is “Mario Kart Arcade GP VR” based on the Super Mario Bros. characters developed by Japan’s Nintendo entertainment brand and licensed from it by Bandai Namco.

Kunihisa Yagisita, general manager at Bandai Namco, was quoted in the press release as saying the new venue was its “first virtual reality zone entertainment facility in Southeast Asia”.

Melco Resorts Philippines, operator of the City of Dreams Manila casino resort in the Philippine capital, filed on October 5 a public statement pledging its commitment to that country’s casino market, following official queries by the stock exchange there concerning the planned delisting of its shares by its main investor MCO Philippines Investments Ltd, also a unit of the Melco Resorts and Entertainment Ltd group.

It had been announced in September that MCO Philippines Investments intended to conduct a tender offer for just under 1.57 billion shares held by the public – representing approximately 27.23 percent of the outstanding capital stock of Melco Resorts Philippines – at a tender offer price of PHP7.25 per share. The aggregate cost would be nearly PHP11.19 billion if fully executed

On October 2, a Melco Resorts Philippines filing said the tender exercise – due to have started on October 3 – was to be delayed for “approximately two weeks”.