R.I.P. Programmed World

It is with sad news to inform you all, if you've haven't heard, that KONAMI has privately issued a cease and desist against Programmed World, an online integrated E-amusement service to support current BEMANI games in the United States. These people helped keep the BEMANI scene alive outside of japan, and it's sad to see them go. They will shut their doors on March 8, 2015.

May we at ZIv wish the best of luck to the team behind PW and their future endeavors.

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Saddest day in US/EU BEMANI history, this is just as effective as Konami down right saying 'We won't ever support BEMANI outside Asia'

Major thanks to the team that kept it alive and running for about 8 years, if it wasn't for them I would not have made the trip to MAGFest to experience these machines that I could not have ever got to play in my state, along with making the best of friends.

R.I.P.

'....we'll be back to f*** again soon....'

To add on to my post, what this basically means is:

- No DDR 2014 and DDR 2013.
- No PENDUAL, SPADA, and tricoro.
- No Pop N' Music lapistoria and Sunny Park.
- NO SDVX I, II, and III
- No jubeat prop, fulfill, and saucer.
- No Reflec Beat groovin' and colette
- No Gitadora
- No DanceEvo(?)

I believe it's basically going to be rolled back to the versions that did not have to require online connectivity. Which are:

- DDR X3
- IIDX Lincle*
- Pop N' Music fantasia
- NO SDVX*
- jubeat Copious APPEND
- Reflec Beat limelight(?)
- whatever version GF/DM had that did not need online connectivity*.
- No DanceEvo, BeatStream, and FutureTomTom.

*unless you live near a Round1, you can play the latest versions of these games.

What a blow

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Here's hoping a new service can be brought up from the ashes of PW, like a phoenix.

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I'm using TRICORO offline...I kinda changed some code in the file to play offline. Can't play new songs but at least I can play, Still sucks though...//

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still, regardless of it shutting down: i'm glad i was able to have the opportunity to be able to play these games with some of you guys

you guys are awesome, and nobody should be having that "fuck konami" stance, instead everyone should be thanking the PSun op's for their hard work for the past few years.

Fuck Konami, honestly.

PW wasn't stealing money from them, they wanted people to enjoy their games. Essentially, PW was actually doing what Konami should've fucking done in 2007.

RIP

KONAMI doesn't want anyone outside of Japan to enjoy their games, do they?

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They got a DDR2014 in Paris like 2 months ago (also a Jubeat and a IIDX 17). I didn't even had the time to play them.
I didn't played in ages and i counted on this to get me back to it.

Well i guess, fuck you Bemani.
They don't give a shit about players.

They just killed musical games outside asia.

wp gg

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With hope, this means we'll start to get BEMANI games inside the US and EU.

If not, Konami has now lost all reason to live.

what's up with this "fuck you" attitude towards konami guys? it was going to happen eventually, you can't back away from it. instead of wasting time ranting about how konami sucks, just thank the people who made this service possible in the first place.

But seriously, KONAMI would just send a C&D to that too. There's no point to it.

I wanna say Fuck Konami but that 新井大樹 PACK 2 is just way too hot for me to be mad at them.

This is thinking way outside of the box, but it's been almost exactly 10 years since Konami's deal with Betson, and we at least know they were in that contract for a set number of years.

Just sayin'.

Hate to kill your dreams, but that's not happening anytime soon.

Anyway, this news makes me question on how stupid the people at Konami are.

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Exactly. Much as it would be nice for some group to come up and establish a new service, Konami would shut them down the very instant they caught wind of it, and it would deter everyone else from even trying to attempt setting up new services.

PW was nice while it lasted, shame to see it go. They did a great job keeping it going all these years.


You have a point, it would be a waste of time, i'd run out of typing room

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I'm just waiting for Konami to just bankrupt themselves to f*cking death, honestly!

I actually grieve at the fact that advocates like Jim Sterling and John Bain (TotalBiscuit) never get a glimpse of segments of the game industry outside of Ubisoft, EA, etc., because I think they might find that companies like Konami, Namco, and Capcom are almost worse than those companies put together.

I've honestly seen everything in terms of what would classify as a video game apocalypse. Namco cutting the cord entirely on a web-comic subsidiary leaving many projects there unfinished, Konami shoving money-hungry agendas in a card game so atrociously that it makes any scummy "pay-to-win" mechanic seem like it came from heaven in comparison.

What Namco does is kind of beside the point for now, but I think it's inevitable. Konami is going on a disgusting and vile slippery slope and I just don't even see how Konami can pull themselves out of their asses after all this. It doesn't even help that what they are currently doing to Yu-Gi-Oh! at this current moment is equally as horrid as this, meanwhile what DOES seem to help is that people buy Konami's shite regardless.

I think eventually, we have to beg the question inside of us and ask if today is the time to stop this charade once and for all. There's got to be some break-point where we actually tolerate Konami's anti-consumer agenda no longer and we decide to just stop supporting Konami altogether.

Fortunately, I trust that you guys are as disgusted about this as I am ever so, but unfortunately am I not trusting on the Yu-Gi-Oh! fanbase that is still perfectly okay with spending $500+ on 40-60 cards, including from scalpers. I think people like that are one of, if not, the largest contributors to what appears before us as the worst of charades Konami that has ever pulled, and it's only going to get even worse, if this demographic is what continues to keep Konami still in business.

instead thinking in closing a service like PW they should be thinking in how to open a new one, a new e-Amusement connection outside of Asia.

Thanks to PW and all the staff, thanks for all those awesome features <3 You're the best

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Well, this stinks.

Ummmm...

Metal Gear is keeping Konami alive and still current, Yu-Gi-Oh, maybe, but if not for the powerhouse that is Kojima Productions, they would have been dead LONG ago. The games, merch, and overall community is what is keeping Konami still alive even after so many years of bad sales reports from their other games. Once MGS is done for, I have no idea what else Konami has that can keep them afloat.

There won't be another service since, as Mokou has stated, it would just meet the same fate. We will see in due time whether this was made in part for Konami to officially release e-amuse in America or if they just don't want to bother with the non-Asian fanbase.

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i'm not worried about the network going down, it was going to happen eventually and i'm glad it was able to make the fanbase for BEMANI grow

i am, however; upset that konami is yet again going to give a blind eye to the western fanbase by most likely not releasing e-amuse to america. it's the hardest part because we really love and want to support their games, and they just give us a "screw off" kind of deal. they don't even acknowledge us.

given they don't want to try again since the last attempt to bring e-amuse to other countries crashed hard.

you cannot be programmed