[hello271]

Contrary to popular belief by the "hardcore" community, Konami's target audience IS the tween/teen girls that will buy each mix, play their favorite licenses over and over and only occasionally venture into the KO area, typically by accident.

Except the target audience of casuals do NOT buy each mix. Find people who have every mix since DDRMAX. That person is more likely to be a hardcore DDR player than a casual. How many casuals do you know that own every mix? I don't. They usually buy one or two games and that's it.

DDR games still sell quite well, otherwise they wouldn't be making them. If I remember correctly, every US console release from Extreme back (yes, including the horrible mix that was US Extreme) and possibly Extreme2 has gone BEST HITS.

I'm going to take sales numbers in NA from VGChartz (which aren't that accurate, but I can't find them anywhere else):

DDRMAX2: 1.09m
Extreme2: 0.92m
SuperNova: 0.83m
SuperNova2: 0.62m
DDR X: 0.21m (so far)

The numbers are clearly dropping, and dropping fast. And is it any surprise? We get basically the same old game every year, with a few tweaks and a lackluster songlist.

You are absolutely right, they COULD put more songs into each mix--but what would their incentive for doing this be? Why make one release when they could easily stretch that content across 2 or 3 versions and have you buy (pirate) 3 games instead of 1? Do you think they hate money or something?

Because CONTENT MATTERS. A better quality game = more sales. Otherwise, why not just have 40 songs, and pump out 5 or 6 versions?

How would they save money? If anything, they'd lose immense amounts of money from lost sales.

By only releasing one version every two years, they would save a lot of money by developing only one game, and also licensing fewer songs, fewer charts, etc. than by having two versions. In other words, something like a really good CS with 110 songs instead of two lackluster CS with 70-80 songs each.

There was also over a 3 year gap in release there, with the general public having accepted that the game was over and done with. You can't recreate that kind of event.

Yeah, having the general public accept that the game was over and done with, and having many move on to ITG, actually hurt SuperNova. But a longer gap = higher demand (to a certain extent). This is still true.

This is a number pulled out of your ass that you are trying to throw off as fact. California has 191 EXTREME machines, compared to 66 SuperNOVA machines. This is probably indicative of the rest of the United states as a whole--some areas might have more or less but I would say that is a good average.

I should have added "from my experience." But okay, so what? A fourth of the Extreme machines have been upgraded. Whatever. It's still a huge number compared to the number of SuperNova 2 machines. How many of those are in CA? 10 maybe? 15? The simple fact is most arcade owners cannot afford to upgrade every year (or don't care to).

Or it could be the fact that the entirety of a SuperNOVA 2 upgrade kit is a marquee, a DVD, and a security chip which caries a ridiculous price tag of roughly $2500.

A SuperNova upgrade kit also ran over $2000 if I remember right, so it's not that different. Upgrade kits always get more expensive with every version.

That doesn't really apply here. It's not like you can choose between SN 1.3 or SN 1.56 or SN give-you-a-blowjob mix.

Except you can go to any electronics store and pick up DDR X, DDR SuperNova 2, or DDR SuperNova. Some stores still have DDRMAX, MAX2, Extreme, and Extreme 2. They're also easy to find online. And that's just for people with one system.

I don't think you've dealt with young teenagers much, or don't remember what it was like to be one yourself. They ALWAYS want new things. Things are outdated within a month or two.

Yeah, if the thing is actually new. Having the same game come out year after year is not exactly enticing to teenagers.

"Increasing longevity" is not the same as "dragging your feet to make the same amount of content appear to last longer. It's like saying that if you have enough food to eat for 3 days and don't eat as frequently but eat more when you do, you are somehow going to survive on that 3 days of food longer

By having every iteration of DDR actually be different, a step forward, with new features, and a solid list of new songs, it will make each DDR game appear much fresher. Also, if DDR keeps pumping out games really fast, in a few years it will likely run out of steam. By slowing it down, and making sure every game is a quality release, that will help the series's longevity.

To be fair, EXTREME was supposed to be the equivalent of Beatmania THE FINAL. There weren't supposed to be arcade versions after it. They had planned to be done with it, and as such, put an extraordinary amount of effort into it to make it last (and it did--we are still running EXTREME tournaments over 6 years later!). Along with that, DDR X is Konami's attempt to take things in a different direction (which I don't like but hey, I'm not in charge).

First of all, there's no arbitrary reason that Konami can only put a lot of effort into a DDR game if it's the last game (or supposedly the last game). For example, a lot more effort is clearly put into every new IIDX game than every DDR game. Extreme didn't take years and years to make. It came out in the arcades 9 months after Max2 did. So I certainly don't think it's unreasonable to expect Konami to be able to churn out an Extreme-level game in 2 years.

But even if were to accept your assertion, then I should at least be able to expect Konami to pump out a game on the same level of Max2, or SuperNova. But DDR X is not even close to those two games. And if Konami's response is "well DDR is getting less popular," then maybe that's Konami's fault. After all, Konami puts a lot more effort into each IIDX and Pop'n version, and I don't hear those games dying out.

Also, perhaps I'm misunderstanding your wording but you seem to be implying that SuperNOVA is a better mix than EXTREME?

Lastly, while I agree that DDR X US CS is very poor, the arcade version appears to be much better.

No, I meant "DDX isn't half the mix Extreme was, and maybe not even half the mix SuperNova was." Although I might be stretching it with SuperNova.

And I don't see how the arcade version can be much better than DDR X US if DDR X US has most of the new songs in the arcade version.