Konami US Arcade Division to shut down?

Taken from DDRFreak.com...

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Jul 15, 2002 - Konami to close US coin-op office - J Dogg
According to RePlay Magazine and other sources, Konami will be shutting down their coin-op division in the US, to cut off overhead of keeping an office in the US. There will still be arcade games from Konami built in Japan, but none will be designed or marketed for the US gamer. Games that are approved for the US market will be handled by either another manufacturer or distributor. This means that any chance of a new US arcade version of DDR has been scrapped, and we will be playing imports from now on.

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Now, not just speaking from a DDR Standpoint this is bad news...

If we didn't realize it already, the arcade scene is dead. Nothing but Gimmick machines, and redemption machines from now on.

I don't play Konami machines in my local Arcade, but since is a Time Out own by Konami I will get screw anyway :(

Why is it a bad news? DDR wise, almost every arcade in the country makes their money from import machines. I nearly did a backflip when I heard this news? Why? Less shitty Bemani in the US. This will have little to no effect on arcades.

Yet another company pulling out of the arcade buisness is a bad thing.

It points towards the end...

Sadly...
Memories of Wrestefest shall be in my brain forever.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Sl1p
-almost every arcade in the country makes their money from import machines

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Quote:

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Originally posted by 88mph
Yet another company pulling out of the arcade buisness is a bad thing.

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I should have wrote it the way I quoted it. Almost every arcade makes their money from import machines anyways. Then of course, if "the end" comes, I won't notice it because of what arcades I go to ;)

::edit::
Don't ask. I don't know why it just quoted everything twice :bang:

Instead of another heap of watered down shit like Dance Dance Revolution USA, we'll likely get DDRMAX 3. Surely somebody will distribute that when it comes out.

Konami America's GM division hasn't really been kind to Guitar Freaks- if I am right, they only released the 1st Mix here.

*runs all the way to the local Recration World and hugs the Sunset Riders cabinent

gameoverdude: Hell, even if Konami did release another US mix of DDR, no arcade in their right mind would ever pick it up. Not only did USA mix make little to no money, but Max2 bootlegs are literally everywhere. You can even get a Max2 machine for around a thousand bucks. Most arcades that needed a new machine just bought a 3rd Mix Korean cabinet (Around 500-600) and a bootleg Max2 (400-500...300 if you're lucky) and badda-bing.

Max3 will of course be distributed thanks to those whacky Australians and their bootlegging ways. Guitar Freaks and DrumMania mixes are always being bootleged...now if only they could get IIDX bootlegs.

Oh, and for those wondering "Why are you only talking about bootlegs? Why don't arcades just get off their cheap asses and get the real deal?" Konami dosen't like their arcade games moving across seas. Thats why they have that whole "Only in Japan" warning screen on all their games. So recently (Starting around when DDRMax was released) KoJ started making less of their arcade upgrades available to stop the exporting of the games. Of course, people didn't like that so bootlegs started flying everywhere. They're exactly the same as the official, and even have all the same retarded bugs (See: Freezing Max2 machines by playing 3 certain songs on 3 certain difficultys) as the officials do. Oh, and they're a lot cheaper, so arcade owners like that considering that they'll make their money back a lot faster.

And now you know...the rest of the story =D