As long as they don't make it "special" for the US (cut songlist, super-easy grading), I'm happy, but I suspect they are going to do these things, so I won't be happy until it's out.  Translating it into English would be the only change that should be done, for obvious reasons.

They won't, unless there are specific licenses that have to be treated as such.
It is obvious that IIDX is following the path of DDR (which also first showed up in EU), and SN is the same anywhere in the world, sans version changes and localization.  I'm looking forward to this, because if konami puts out officially IIDX in america, it gives large companies with money like gameworks a chance to pick it up, maknig it more widely available for play.

All I'm hoping is that this isn't a sign that IIDX is facing an imminent death... It seems really sudden to bring a very niche game (BMUS only sold ~12,000 copies) to Europe and America.  I could understand them bringing it over if BMUS sold 1,000,000 copies, but this just seems strange to me.

Most of the IIDX CS games are primarily english and 8th style AC aswell so i dont even think that translation would be needed.

better not be any Little John on there

I'm sensing that their plans to test the waters with IIDX possibly indicates these things:
1) SuperNova is considered a success (this one is a lock, I'm sure).
2) BMUS sold more than they thought.

I doubt an imminent death.  I also think that as with SN, they'll produce few machines at first and then produce to order, thus minimizing overstock that can occur from overspeculation.
Although BMUS only sold like 1 or 2% of what DDR sells, 12000 copies was probably enough for them to try to market it over here.  Lots of random people touch IIDX at ACME for it being a very unusual game that isn't widely known.  It's possible that IIDX can be mildly successful over here.

Even if IIDX doesn't do well, I'm sure they'll have a decent cashflow coming from the CS versions of the DDR games to fund their investments.  I think they have a lot of excess cash right now, and thats why you are seeing more and more DDR games coming out with more and more licenses.

I read about this on AiJ, but I guess in an interview in the latest Arcadia, DJ Yoshitaka stated that he made the Ghostbusters remixes to be enjoyed by foreigners.  A subtle hint to the games EU and US releases?  Possibly.

That's more than subtle, haha

But yeah, CS DDR makes a SHITLOAD of money for them, so they probably are willing to play around in foreign markets with bemani even if for a little loss.

This isn't a good thing, many arcades will get rid of their current machines for this (judging by betson's track record) inferior product.

Yeah, all 20 arcades that actually have IIDX.

All the more reason, konami can hunt these places down and perhaps have them "upgrade", depending on how the legality of their machines stands.
edit: Not only this, but konami can also use this as means of tracking down distributors of their games. This is definitely not a good thing. To think their are only 20 arcades makes it so much easier, too. Look at what happened with Lik-Sang. See a pattern? Attack a distributor by finding out where the products go. Konami can and most likely will do this with IIDX AC, because there are so few machines.

They'd rather sell more machines and make money than to squash a potential market.  No IIDX machine is bootleg.

The problem isn't bootlegs, it's that the machines are unlicensed for this region. They didn't care about this with DDR because it is so common. The problem if they do this with IIDX is that they could easily hunt down the arcades and coerce them into having what will likely be an inferior product to what is already there. Your point is part of the equation too,  but as you can see there are enough good reasons for konami to release IIDX AC in America. Now if it is a superior product to what US AC's already have, then I have no problem with this, but the likelyhood of this in reality is quite low, unfortunately.
edit: So basically, if the 20 IIDX machines are replaced with a shitty game, then who's to say they'll ever release another one? I mean they did this with DDR (it failed, but chuck e. cheeses will only carry games licensed for this region [just showing that some places are like this] hence all the DDR USA mixes there) but with the scarcity of IIDX in consideration, we could possibly have a bunch of beatmania US AC machines. They will never release a mix after that, but if competition shows up they will pull a rush job to establish a market presence. The plausibility and ease of this scenario scares me, but I still think a few arcades will carry jp IIDX's. Just not as many.

Unlike with ITG, Konami is not wishing to squash any competition.  Konami would be squashing themselves, which is pointless.  It's not like KOJ, KOA, and KOE are competing entities; they are all part of the same comporation.

1) They are pre-empting competitors. I don't think in the post ITG environment they will take their chances on allowing another game market dominance. Note how they are making decisions on the mistakes they made with DDR (no U.S. release, no fan support, etc.)
2) They are attacking those who distribute games licensed for Japan. If they establish that they can and will shut down distributors of IIDX, etc. Again, look at what happened to Lik-Sang. People called it a conspiracy when there were skeptics about how long they would continue distributing games with no regard to region, etc. I think the situation is much more serious then most people think. I hope I am wrong, but if Konami learned anything from the ITG ordeal, it is that they need to stay competitive worldwide or other 3rd party music games/products will cut into their perceived market share (which in the case of DDR was near non-existent in the AC sense).

Am I the only one who read this and thought "w00t, Portland IIDX!"? :?

1) We wouldn't have enough regular players to support the game.
2) And it scares new people off because of it's learning curve and intimidating notes (lots of them).
3) Big game, and not enough revenue in $/per sq.ft compared to other games they could have in place of 1 IIDX machine.
4) Our arcades aren't owned by people who care. The employees do, but not the companies that own them.
5) Don't say avalon would, because Glen said that they will never get another BM machine after how badly their Mini did.
6) If not arcades, what individual would shell out money for what would most likely be  a shitty game? If someone wanted IIDX badly enough in Portland, we'd have it. I'm talking individuals with money, not some jo-ho who dreams of buying a DDR machine and their plans "fall through surprisingly" because money is tougher to come by than you think.

/rant

1) That's a likelihood, not a fact.
2) Not in my experience.
3) Every arcade I've been to in the last 5 years except Tilt! has over 20% of the arcade area full of extremely low-profit machines.
4) The employees at Ultrazone's level of give-a-damn is approximately = 0.  They didn't even care when I got my friends to help me move the pads back on their PIU machine so that I had room to FS.
5) I wouldn't expect them to unless some other Portland arcade got one and made shitloads off it.  And if they were to ever get one, it would be an import.
6) I'm guessing it won't be all that shitty.  BeatMania US sucked to Happy Sky, but it was still better than any DDR CS I've ever played.  However, any individual who would actually buy a IIDX machine wouldn't waste their time with a US version regardless of quality, unless they could get it at a super low price.

/reply

10 players warranting 15,000 dollars? lol. A 15k buisiness risk is a good plan to an arcade!
Look at it in the eyes of a non - rhythm game player

i love this quasi - empirical data you give. You have any clue on how much games at tilt make? You obviously know nothing about arcades.
Are you supporting my points lol?
Again, you haven't made any in depth market research. ITG doesn't even make that much anymore. And tilt says that there is not enough demand for a IIDX machine to warrant the excessive sum of money required to procure this
Konami? super low price? lol. and the other arguments in that sentence are supporting me kthx.


Thank you for supporting my idea!

6) I mentioned this before but if they make IIDX in america, it's going to be the exact same game as IIDX in Japan, not something like BM US

Source? I'd personally like this, but where did you hear this from? Or is this dead reckoning?

Why wouldn't they zeppy?  My beatmania cabinet was originally a beat stage cabinet, and it was made in Korea, not Japan.  I'm sure they will just give the design plans to Betson.

I really don't see how it wouldn't be more like US. I know little about IIDX arcade, assuming it doesn't have beginner mode, I would totally think they'd put that on the US arcade version and make it the default difficulty, just like in BM US.

9th+ have a Beginner mode already.

for what it's worth, the machine at ATEI in england was identical to the japanese location test version, aside from having (unless they add even more) the final songlist. nothing translated or "americanized".