DDR SuperNOVA 2 AC Mk. II (US AC out now; e-Amuse!)

[hooky -i- vanisher]

That doesn't mean that there will be no e-AMUSE. Betson could change their minds.

[桜の色]

Remember - this is also the company that has done nothing regarding IIDX coming out in America either when Konami essentially promised us that not only are we getting IIDX...we're also supposed to get e-Amuse.

tl;dr - Betson fucking sucks. Konami really needs to tell Betson that they're fired for fucking up their arcade sales in the US.

[Trigger_Happy]

Originally Posted by Brazoliange

I might suggest that anyone that actually wants to play the game get their arcades to pick up an upgrade kit on Yahoo Auctions Japan once SN3 releases in Japan so they can actually play any of the boss songs or unlocks.

Yep, we'd play our SN2 songs earlier if we were to go that route.

[Snapps]

Originally Posted by ColorOfSakura

Remember - this is also the company that has done nothing regarding IIDX coming out in America either when Konami essentially promised us that not only are we getting IIDX...we're also supposed to get e-Amuse.

tl;dr - Betson fucking sucks. Konami really needs to tell Betson that they're fired for fucking up their arcade sales in the US.

So why don't we tell Konami what we think :G.

[Brazoliange]

Originally Posted by les3454

That doesn't mean that there will be no e-AMUSE. Betson could change their minds.

to paraphrase what Betson's employees said on DDRFreak, 'there are no plans to implement e-Amuse. This could possibly change, but the people in charge of this don't want to do it so it would take a lot of convincing for it to be possible at all'. This is AFTER Konami pushed for them to implement e-Amuse. When a large number of people responded and the employee said "I'll see what I can do" he then decided to not give any sort of update for weeks.

So yeah, unless the heads of Betson are convinced more by people on DDRFreak than Konami, chances of e-Amuse are pretty fucking low.

[Månåtor v0.25]

I say we should rise up.
Seriously.

[Neon Kel]

What CAN we do, though?

I mean really...

[Arctic Wolves]

Originally Posted by Neon Kel

What CAN we do, though?

I mean really...

You do what you can. If SuperNOVA2 ships to North America without e-Amuse and without unlocks, I simply won't support the game. I will not play a North American machine.

I know it sounds petty, and Betson/Konami could care less what a single player does, but it's something I can do as an individual to show what I think is a pathetic product after numerous unacceptable delays.

I definitely hope I won't have to, since I look forward to playing it, but to me, the message is more important than the game (if it does, in fact, turn out to be what we all fear).

[Shalori]

As long as I have my ITG2 dedicab and the ability to put custom songs on it, Konami can kiss my ass. They won't get my money, especially if they do like someone mentioned and release it here without unlocks or e-amuse. That would pretty much tell me what Konami thinks of its American DDR players.

[Cali]

Not so much Konami, more betson. I dunno though. I really wish betson wasnt so.........stupid.

[Neon Kel]

Originally Posted by Arctic Wolves

You do what you can. If SuperNOVA2 ships to North America without e-Amuse and without unlocks, I simply won't support the game. I will not play a North American machine.

The only problem I see with that is that it'll be ineffective.

Konami/Betson won't get the message if an individual stops playing. They may get the message if everyone boycotts, but there's no way to pull that off. Even if all the regulars on bemanistyle, ddrfreak, AND itgfreak were to stop playing, there are still too many people who will only play the game once, maybe twice who would bring in enough revenue for Konami to not care about the people who really love DDR.

[TimeSpaceMage]

That's not exactly accurate - Konami just makes money from the machines' sales, not the tokens. So really, it all boils down to whether American arcade owners see the game as popular or not.

My closest arcade has an unpatched Supernova. SN2 would be an big improvement over that, since even without any unlocks it should have better sync, more songs and a better interface. I do worry a bit about Extra Stage possibly only activated by Unreal (Volcano?), though.

[「dj.TK」]

Originally Posted by Shalori

As long as I have my ITG2 dedicab and the ability to put custom songs on it, Konami can kiss my ass.

[Brazoliange]

My suggestion is this: Contact your local arcade operators and advise them not to get SuperNova 2. Tell them the reasoning behind it (lack of a large part of the songlist, lack of e-Amuse which other regions have and which was initially advertised as an option for the product, what e-Amuse would allow/how it would encourage more play) and also advise them to contact Betson to let them know that they will not support their product for those reasons. Every time an arcade operator chooses to not buy a new SN2 dedicab from Betson, Betson does not make (somewhere around) $15,000. Every time an arcade operator does not buy an upgrade kit, Betson loses (estimated) $3k+. This isn't serious revenue (take a look at their site to see the amount of other games/vending they sell), but if they continue to get complaints and similar reasons that arcades will not pay for it, there is more likelihood that they won't do a half-job with SN3 (and even possibility that they could add e-Amuse support to SN2).

A better option is waiting until SN3 drops in Japan (which will probably be in 6 months or less) and SN2 kits go up on Yahoo Auctions Japan (which for non-Japanese users can be accessed via Rinkya for a small fee) for a fraction of the price of a new kit from Betson. Your arcade can most likely get a SN2 upgrade kit for less than $500 (as opposed to an estimated $3k+ from Betson). The differences are VERY minor between the versions (think of any DDR Extreme machine and the difference in localization between it and SuperNova US) and it will most likely come with full unlocks (I live near an arcade which bought a JP SuperNova 1 machine which also came with all of the unlocks, including boss songs in normal gameplay), all of the nonstop/oni courses, and possibly noteskins and character unlocks. This not only saves your arcade money and gets them/you a superior version of the game but also communicates a message to Betson (if they call and give their thoughts as for why they aren't upgrading through them) regarding doing a better job next time around.

Like others have said, Betson/Konami make no money from a machine's income. They only make money when an arcade owner buys either an SN2 dedicab or upgrade kit. Not playing at a location will not send any message whatsoever to Betson/Konami.

[recessionatalus]

Brazo and I talked a bit about this last night, and what he just posted is basically the best course of action right now. Advise your arcades to NOT get SN2, and to contact Betson and explain why. If anyone is feeling particularly overzealous, I compiled a list of SN1 locations from DDRFreak. If anyone would like that list so they can call/contact any in their area, that'd be cool too