News Flash

[red shoe paul]

Get rid of ITG.
Please

[nova]

For some reason, I am not surprised by this news...

From what I think, I beleive that Konami would keep ITG and DDR seperate, but would kill off ITG, or would develop both games, but seperate from each other.

I do wonder, what the reaction would be at itgfreak, however....

[Torukine]

Originally Posted by red shoe paul

Get rid of ITG.
Please

Omfg B&

(I know ironic statement )

[google666]

Originally Posted by red shoe paul

Get rid of ITG.
Please

why would Konami do that?

[THD5%]

i am actually really upset with konami about this.

[Aeronautical Vigilante]

I'm betting Konami kills it or kills DDR, or severely mutates one or both.

There's four 'base' possibilities and a best way to handle each.
1) Kill them both. Uh, unlikely, but let's say Konami, one day, decides "We don't want to do Dance Games anymore," unexpectedly. They would most likely license the game back to some other company who would keep it going. If this were the case, however, why didn't they just demand royalties from RoXoR rather than buy the franchise?
2) Keep ITG going, but not DDR. This one would be kind of strange, but in one narrow view makes sense. DDR is not an entirely growing franchise; the concept either clicks with people or it doesn't, and no amount of marketing, song licensing, etc. is really going to change that too much. DDR fans who keep going with it look for greater challenges - which is exactly the hole ITG fills to a significant extent. Spruce it up with better novice content, throw in some DDR/IIDX songs redone for ITG, and let DDR quietly settle into oblivion. Not too bad an idea, but...
3) Keep DDR, kill ITG. The obvious one. Why have mindshare in dance games split between two separate games? Under this plan, Konami might be smart enough to recognize that the hardcore players like going to extremes, and might start merging ITG's gimmacks, songs, etc. into DDR. Slowly.
4) Keep both. This one is perhaps the most intelligent, for three reasons.
- First, it establishes a little bit of goodwill with the Dance Game community. People who might otherwise say "I will never buy a Konami/Bemani/Konami-made dance game again because they screwed over my favorite series", well, won't. That's good for business and makes you seem like a better company. Smart.
- Second, the two games, right now, are polarised towards two separate audiences. In general, DDR fans are more casual, enjoying fun songs and easier charts with the occasional Max to mix it up, while ITG fans tend to like it hardcore - seeing someone play anything less than Hard is comparatively uncommon (except on Doubles). There are hardcore Dance Game players who prefer DDR to ITG for one or more reasons, and a few casual Dance Game players who prefer ITG to DDR, but in general this is a good rule of thumb. Konami would probably be wise to improve the low-level ITG game some, but by generally emphasizing the upper difficulties with ITG while keeping DDR with an emphasis on more casual play, they can hit both groups effectively. If it's separate devteams (say hiring the existing ITG devteam), Konami can release Dance Games twice as often - and given they know how obsessies are (See also: MGS1 Integral, MGS2 Substance, MGS3 Subsistence), they can see that more rapid releases without sacrificing quality can have their advantages.
- Third, and perhaps most obvious: There's all those ITG Dedicabs out, ones Konami probably can't easily convert to DDR. Konami could easily say that for Arcade uses, "ITG cabinets play ITG, DDR cabinets play DDR", i.e. stop offering ITG BoXoRs without an ITG cab. Andamiro pops in and adds "PIU cabinets play PIU" just to be silly. Either way. ITG has an existing mindshare, and I can easily imagine Konami being able to sell cabinets/upgrades for both separately to the same Arcade owners in larger arcades (putting DDR Suprnova 2 and ITG3 a moderate distance away from each other), especially if they can successfully produce clamoring demand for both as their own games (Rather than the perception of ITG2 as an "upgrade" to DDR Extreme).

From a business perspective, keeping ITG going has it's merits. Producing internal competition is a classic technique among companies to keep things fresh, and ITG is almost a natural fit for starting this. On the other hand... See what I said about competing-brand mindshare, which can be disadvantageous for both.

Honestly, there's no firm telling how this will go. Most likely, Konami keeps DDR. Whether or not ITG survives is another question.

[Monster in a box]

Originally Posted by Blacktail

perhaps the next stage will be buy andamiro or just buy Pump It Up o.o

You've GOTTA BE KIDDING.

[phuzion]

So, let me get this straight.

Konami buys a game which was based off of source code for a simulator that was based off of the gameplay of a Konami game.

The longer I think about this, the wierder it sounds in my head.

[google666]

The more I think about this the more I think Konami might TRY to take out Stepmania.

[itgfreak925]

Konami is fuckiing gay. They are gonna gayify In the groove. The whole point of ITG was to give players a challenge. *Weep* *sob* *Buys a pad for stepmania* Im gonna send konami hate mail for that.

[Spork!]

I'm a strongish guy. I have my pride, I understand shit like this happens. In fact, I kinda anticipated it. But still, I AM FUCKING CRYING. This hit me harder than it shoudl have.

[itgfreak925]

Originally Posted by Spork!

I'm a strongish guy. I have my pride, I understand shit like this happens. In fact, I kinda anticipated it. But still, I AM FUCKING CRYING. This hit me harder than it shoudl have.

I feel the same fucking exact way... Its almost like life ended.

[RedXXX]

My opinion is that this is their retaliation against Roxor for converting their cabinets, and then taking over the dance game platform. Now they may be doing this to stop it from growing, and collect all of the revenue and kill it.

I find it funny that Konami may be jealous that us Americans, made something better than all of their massive international hit DDR games.

[AJ 187]

[20:23:10] Wolfman2000> ...what of StepMania then?
[20:23:17] Steve|Office> Er, they don't own SM.
[20:25:38] Wolfman2000> That's good at least
[20:26:44] Steve|Office> I'm not sure how they could get SM, for one thing it's opensource and protected by the copyright. They'd have to sue to get control of the copyright and I assure, I have yet to be served.

[Daniel]

Fortunatelly Pump It Up is made by a large corporation who isn't likely to sell out to Konami. But small little Roxor couldn't compete.

There is no way ITG will exist beyond this. Konami hated every minute of expansion of the dance game genre and now they will just continue to put their half hearted efforts starting with Super Nova.

A huge part of the dance game innovasion has died dead. I'm going to the arcade tomorrow for the funeral service.