IIDX GOLD release in jeopardy!

[Nightime]

The fate of USA IIDX GOLD is looking bleak. There's a campaign and strategy employed in that link to change that, amongst many. But according to the DDRUK News page, the likelihood of IIDX GOLD's release stateside is looking slim-to-none, unless some major turnaround happens soon.

[Zonic]

Yeah, 50% of USians actually KNOW the game.

[Baka of the Orochi]

Try about 2%. Maybe 25-35% US gamers know of the game.

And WTF is a USian? Is that a retarded mix of Asian and US?
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[jpoppyz]

at first i thought you meant it was mention on the TV show jeopardy....

god im tired...
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[Zonic]

All I know is, the americanese better let Konami know we want it over here.

Anyone wanna predict the price?

[Baka of the Orochi]

I was discussing this a while ago, the a very kind estimate that came up was at LEAST $15000 brand new, and that's assuming Betson cuts some corners here and there (take out the stage, find a cheaper alternative to a screen, etc.). To make the machine sell here, they would have to cut a LOT of corners, otherwise the machine would hit $20000 (which would include royalty costs to Konami of Japan, from what I understand, costs a lot).

And Konami knows we want it here (if you've been following the news about the Gold testing on Bemanistyle, it's quite obvious). Betson on the other hand needs to be convinced by numbers. Telling them means nothing, if they can't sell it, then it won't happen. It's certainly not unreasonable of them either, since IIDX is an expensive investment (most expensive of all the Bemani games).
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[Melvis at the Disco!]

[Baka of the Orochi]

Console market and arcade market are very different.

Coin-op in America is really weak. With the dying of malls and mall arcades, not many arcades have the money to spend on the newest games, which cost a lot more money these days (and are a lot more far and few between). It costs 4 digits easily to get a new kit. If you want the cabinet, you might have to bpay almost 5 digits, if not already. Then take into account console versions are usually arcade-perfect, and thensome, so why spend quarters at the arcade when you can play at home? Competition? Then go to someone's house and play it.

Granted, Beatmania/IIDX and other music games aren't complete arcade ports as they're missing a lot of songs, but DDR/Beatmania alone aren't enough to convince arcade owners that those will bring people back to arcades; it's a REALLY hefty investment, especially with both games costing an easy $15000 or more for a new cabinet. Arcade owners aren't used to that. $15000 can buy a twin cabinet driving game (like Initial D v.3 or FnF) or a twin Time Crisis 4 SD that'll guarantee their money back, no matter how old the game gets. Music games on the other hand can be a fad game, and it always needs upgrading after 6 months-a year, and the upgrades aren't even that cheap either. Once they finally make their money back, what's going to guarantee it'll keep making money?

You heard the complaints: xx Mix or xx Style is too old, we're bored of the songs, we need a new Mix that Japan has, why should we keep playing at this arcade that's not upgrading their machine? Unfortunately, we're spoiled, and will refuse to or won't care to support the game enough to show arcades that they should buy an upgrade, and we'll keep playing.

Granted, some arcades sucker punch you, but most aren't confident enough, and consumers are usually too dumb or ignorant to realize how much keeping an arcade open (and making it worth the trouble) really costs.

Now going back to the console thing, here's an example:

Tekken 5 DR. Namco offered the upgrade for a couple thousand. Sold like crap. PS3 and PSP version comes out, people are buying and playing it like nuts...albeit not as well as 5.0 for PS2, but still sells and is played far more than that AC version.

tl;dr: You can't really gauge very accurately how well an arcade version of a game will do compared to the console version. Because of HUGE cost differences and vendor sales, it's not fair to say "PS2 BM sold pretty well so that means it'll do decent in the arcades."


Konami/Betson has two major obstacles to overcome which will make or break it in America:

-Will people care about this game? (from the BZN test, obviously yes)
-Will arcades buy it, despite the outrageous price tag? (which is the issue on-hand)

The second obstacle is where IIDX failed in UK, thus it got canned.
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[ColorOfSakura]

Baka - the thing about Tekken 5 DR was that it only offered two new characters and about three new stages. There was really no difference in the game aside from that. Spending $2,500-$3,000 on an upgrade kit that consisted of adding two characters to the game is a terrible investment. It would have been one thing if they offered the upgrade for cheaper (Say $1,000), but even then arcades see that as a lot of money just to minorly upgrade a game.
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[Baka of the Orochi]

[ColorOfSakura]

[Baka of the Orochi]

[Baka of the Orochi]