A third unit of the Konami brand’s “Fortune Cup”, a modern twist on arcade-style horse racing games, has been installed in the Macau casino market, this time at MGM Cotai, a property promoted by MGM China Holdings Ltd. The game began operating on the floor of the property in the latter part of this month, said a Tuesday press notice issued by Hong Kong-listed Asia Pioneer Entertainment Holdings Ltd (APE).
APE has a machine distribution business regionally that encompasses the Macau market and numbers Konami Australia Pty Ltd – the regional promoter of Konami’s Fortune Cup (pictured) – among its partners.
The other units of Fortune Cup in the Macau market are located respectively at Wynn Macau and Wynn Palace, casino venues operated by Wynn Macau Ltd, noted Konami Australia in commentary to GGRAsia during May’s Global Gaming Expo (G2E) Asia casino industry trade show held in Macau.
Hideo Goto, international sales manager of Konami Australia was quoted in Tuesday’s press release issued by APE as saying his firm expected to “conclude several more installations” of Fortune Cup in Macau “by the end of the year”.
The arcade-style multi-terminal product combines the mechanics of traditional arcade horse racing with digital video animation.
Tuesday’s press release mentioned that Cantonese voice-overs for the video animations on the Fortune Cup games placed in the Macau market had been jointly produced by the APE group and Samuel Hung, well-known in Hong Kong for his horse racing commentary work.
The release also quoted APE’s chief executive Herman Ng as saying: “Fortune Cup is an absolute hit in Macau. For regular players of electronic games … they can experience the excitement as if being on the real racecourse.”
The machine comprises a central 274-centimetre-wide (108-inch-wide) race track for eight horse figurines. There are 12, high-definition, touchscreen terminals for players to place bets and view horse odds, race statistics, and comprehensive bet options for ‘win’, ‘place’ and ‘quinella’.
