Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | June 2013 40 FEATURES K onami Gaming Inc. and Konami Australia Pty Ltd are the casino gaming subsidiaries of Japanese video game giant Konami Corporation. Konami Corp. was founded in Japan in 1973 and got into the supply of slot machines in 1996 with the formation of Konami Australia, which has become one of the leading suppliers in that country’s highly competitive slots market. The company then entered the US gambling market in 2000 as Konami Gaming Inc., headquartered in Las Vegas. Last year, Konami established a branch office in Singapore to help concentrate its efforts to sell and support its gaming machines and systems businesses in East Asia, especially inMacau and Singapore, where the Konami Gaming brand has yet to gain a significant foothold. “We’ve identified Macau and Singapore as being market leaders in the region,” explains Konami Gaming Director of Game Product Management Steve Walther. “When gaming was expanding in the US, other locations simply emulated what was working in Las Vegas before each place started building its own identity. In this region, Macau’s built the identity and Singapore’s building the identity. As gaming expands across Asia operators are going to look to Macau and Singapore, see what works and move it to other locations. So we really want to be a dominant provider in those two places because that would facilitate moving our products to other markets in Asia.” Asian themes were out in force at the Konami Gaming stand at last month’s G2E Asia, with dragons, lanterns, firecrackers, pearls and pagodas aplenty. Konami showed for the first time in Macau its KP3 platform; a new progressive, Dragon’s Victory; a new cabinet, the Podium Goliath; and the SYNKROS casino management system. The graphically dynamic KP3 boasts an eye-popping, real-time 3D interface that adds a fresh and uniquely personal dimension to the slot experience. Konami exhibited six strongly Asian-themed launch titles for KP3, including Dynasty Riches, Lion Festival, Legion Warrior and Fan-tastic Gold, which have “good volatility, engaging sound and strong symbolism,” says Mr Walther. The four-level linked progressive Dragon’s Victory features a colorful take on the fire-breathing beast that appears when the progressive is randomly triggered. Dragon’s Victory is compatible with both the KP3 platform and its predecessor, K2V.“The progressive is very strong and any one of the base games can easily attach itself to the progressive, run as a standalone, or even have a standalone progressive built on top of it,” adds Mr Walther. The new 93-inch Podium Goliath cabinet is a supersized version Rapid Revolver featuring Rising Dragon Creating Resonance Intent on growing its business in Macau and Singapore, Konami Gaming arrived at this year’s G2E Asia armed with a new dragon-themed progressive, new cabinet and new systems product