The Death of Konami Digital Entertainment & The Rise of Konami Amusments

This is pretty big news, to say the least. Hopefully, nothing will happen to Konami's arcade titles since they're now in the same division as their gambling products, especially in the long term. >>;

I'm not really surprised by this news, really, KONAMI always seems to be re-structuring.


^: Made this 2 years ago; I guess we'll be seeing more people playing KPE games, lol. This also pretty much solidifies the possibility of Magical Halloween 5 being ported as well.

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I'm not entirely surprised about the news in hindsight, since everyone knows that Konami had been concentrating on casino games since a year or two ago, it's just a bit concerning because this exact same scenario actually happened around the mid-late 90's with Bally/Williams' pinball and casino gaming divisions. Both divisions worked under one company hand in hand until the pinball market crashed by the late-90's (sales went down on their newer tables while their older tables like The Addams Family were still the only thing selling decently), and even when they tried to change their fortunes with their Pinball 2000 tables, sales still weren't good enough to save their pinball divisions, and were closed down after Star Wars Episode 1's table tanked. The staff either were moved to their now all-gambling division with little to no compensation, or they moved on to work for Stern Pinball or be an independent company.

There's a decade old documentary that goes into more detail about the situation that I'd recommend giving a watch (it's called Tilt: The Battle to Save Pinball ).

Hopefully, Konami Amusements won't have a similar fate, but the key is gonna be to make sure the arcade games keep selling well and/or keeping their profits on pace.

I say it's not looking good for the less popular BEMANI series now that this change is coming about. Restructuring inevitably leads to cuts, and with nine active game series running (and a tenth coming soon) some series may not last much longer.

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That's a little scary for me...I've got a feeling maybe Pop'n Music might end up being one to die...


I also think GITADORA is another contender.

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DanceEvolution got the axe today, didn't it? Or at least people keep claiming it did.

I doubt jubeat plus / REFLEC BEAT plus will be affected.

But yeah, this makes me worried for the future of the less popular BEMANI series like GITADORA and pop'n music. (DDR at least has international releases now to help make it more money.) If everything has to be shared within one group, and they need to cut fat, pop'n music will probably be the first to go.

Yes, DanceEvolution got the axe. Earlier, Bemanistyle tweeted about how most cab owners have been sent Offline USB update kits. It's really sad, and I'm endlessly worried for the franchise.

Yeah, I'm scared about more games getting the axe. but I don't think pop'n will be first to go, as from what I've seen it seems more popular than GITADORA?

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Why would they cut pop'n music? Isn't it still fairly popular, in Japan at least?

It's declining in popularity, and less and less effort seems to be going into its development in the past couple of years.

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Is sad to see one of the four main konami titles in danger to be cut. I don't think GITADORA will be one of them because they release new fresh content weekly with brand new artist (specially in Tri-boost,really this game was a nice surprise to me with the lineup) but is not the same story as Pop'n music.

Since Lapistoria his quality has been declining, but in eclale it shows glimpse of going up with those new songs and the contest. Maybe there's still time to show new songs and attractives events besides all the P'nM merchandasing ... i just don't lose hope (just like in DDR)

What will happen to DDR, pop'n music, SOUND VOLTEX, REFLEC BEAT, jubeat and GITADORA now since DanEvo got the Axe...right?

DDR will be fine. It just got a US release, and we got like, tons of new songs for 3 days in a row.
SDVX is still going even though there hasn't been a SDVX 4
Jubeat is fine, song are still being added.
GITADORA, same.
Reflec Beat same.
Pop N Music, hasnt been doing too well. It's still somewhat active with the character stuff. Might be alive for a another few before getting the axe sadly.

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DanceEvolution... ;_;

How long does an offline game survive in an arcade? Like I saw people waiting in line to play it on two cabinets in Tokyo, but this was months ago. It didn't seem like it was as unpopular as the attention-starved DDR cabinets next to them. It must've been it was a hassle for Konami to update/maintain/pay for all those licenses, though, even if it was doing average...ly.

Is the discussion of importing a cabinet (or rather, why it's impossible) against the rules? IIRC, it's a Kinect hooked up to some arcade game guts. It seems like it'd be the easiest one to buy in a few pieces and BS the rest. >_>

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I think it was a expensive game,and not enough people were playing it for them to keep up the costs....?

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I just got this Tweet from some user named bk2128 and he or she confirmed that BEMANI will be affected in a good way, since they're now going to be expanded to every Asian country and Yes, each BEMANI title are no longer be developed by Konami Digital Entertainment themselves, but instead...Konami Amusements will be handling the development and production of every BEMANI game now.

Huh. Although, to me, as Tay and Silver said, GITADORA always seemed less popular than Pop'n, but, just to prevent my favorite BEMANI game ever from dying....(I'm hoping it doesn't though...)

We gotta think of ways to...MAKE POP'N GREAT AGAIN! (Trump reference on purpose even though I hate him)

Any ideas, anyone?

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Kill denpa, make more original songs, no anime, and that is all.

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You can't. It has been practically dead anyway.

Don't be such a downer! I've got some ideas:

More original songs (as SR said), less re-used characters, more redesigns for some characters, more KEYSOUNDED crossovers, more contests to spice things up, more events, and...maybe an international release, even!

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More of a gamble than an idea, but maybe Pop'n just needs to look dead(er) for a while until they revive it in some stellar way where people go "OMG I THOUGHT THIS WAS DEAD BUT IT ISN'T; YAY" and restart the hype cycle. DDR seems to like doing that.

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