Will Pop'n Music ever come to the US?

[Yuki Ijuin]

Damn it. I got quoted out of context there. Please read the whole post?

[cupcake]

Originally Posted by hello271

Will there ever be a US arcade version? What about a US home version? They tried with Beatmania, although personally I think Pop'n Music has a lot more potential for mass market appeal than Beatmania.

Hopefully not. It isn't worth the loss in credibility.

Bring it to the US PS2, and they'll screw up the interface, put the songs we don't want to play on it, and every decent license will never appear. To add insult to injury, the game will be called "Pop Music" and probably feature a couple of weak, licensed covers so they can proudly proclaim on the box: "Featuring Smash-Hit songs 'CRAP' and 'CRAP2' ...and many more!"

Far better just to start changing future license agreements, get rid of regions, and open the store to Americans / Foreigners.

[zorahk]

I personally thought it would have been a step in the correct direction if they retconned the ps2 region coding on the ps3 to make it play ps2 games from any region

[bansatalus]

you realize that about 99% of people never even think about region encoding right

and there are licensing restrictions that keep certain games/movies from being allowed to be sold in certain areas/countries which is the primary reason for region encoding to exist

right

[zorahk]

actually I think more people think about region coding then you think they do, which is why products such as swap magic became so popular very quickly after their release.

[Arbel]

I think most people use Swap Magic (as well as other related products) mainly for something else other than playing imports heh

[cupcake]

Region coding exists primarily to extract as much money as possible out of a region (ensuring the local branch gets paid) and second, to enforce copyrights on music, etc.

Lik-Sang was shut down because they DARED sell import PSP games to Europeans.

In the EU, months-lagged PSP Euro-games were 50-60 Euros (around $70-$80 vs $30-$40 at the time for first-rate, up-to-date games in the USA)

At present, I'm not aware Play-Asia will even ship PS2 games to Europe anymore - PS3/PSP are definitely out. (Most PS3 games go 60-70 euros here at the moment = $90-$100)

Well, sorry to get off topic so much, but this region thing is bothersome to me; I notice it a lot. Sony claimed the PS3 was supposed to be 'Region Free' for PS3 titles. Now, I have read that they added markings on the box in Japan stating it is only for Japanese PS3 games. (sigh)

I think a region-free Pop'n would work fine in the future and, though I may not be in the majority, I am really sick of this region bs in general.

[bansatalus]

Originally Posted by zorahk

actually I think more people think about region coding then you think they do, which is why products such as swap magic became so popular very quickly after their release.

i would wager that it's more for playing burns than for imports

and even so, i would wager that the ratio of PS2s sold vs. swap magic kits sold is still VERY LOW-as in, less than 2%, probably less than 1.

[Kaykun[Stoked]]

I personally doubt they'll bring it to the US anytime soon. Or for a couple years. It really depends on how much FEVER and 16 they sell before they even think about making a CS for America.

[Yuki Ijuin]

It really doesn't matter how much 16 and/or fever + Beatmania + DDR + Session + Karaoke Fever (American Idol or not) they sell. There's no potential market in the US.

[zorahk]

there is a potential market in the US, as evidenced by this message board. the problem is the product is marketed all wrong, they add craptastic licensed songs so that the actual fanbase that would normally purchase the game ignores it and imports

[Yuki Ijuin]

This board. You mean the 20 people who would take the time and effort to import the games? Or the 40 people that plays it? or the 60 that plays in arcades nationwide?

[travelsonic]

Originally Posted by Yuki Ijuin

It really doesn't matter how much 16 and/or fever + Beatmania + DDR + Session + Karaoke Fever (American Idol or not) they sell. There's no potential market in the US.

This is the type of ignorance that is a big part in this type of thing failing IMO.

< RANT >

I'm convincing the guy who runs the student center @ the college I go to to let me hook up a MIDI keyboard (or two) to my old computer and run Keyboardmania PC for everybody to play. - he and everybody else I talked to about it were pretty damned intrigued/supportive.

< / END RANT >

EDIT: And please, I don't how to politely put it, but don't pull the odd number out of your ass - it only makes your argument (about a lack o market), or rather, the seriousness of your argument out to be something not to be taken seriously in my opinion. I mean seriously, out of 145,234 members of the forum, you only pulled a number as low as 20?

[chase!]

I think he is refering to active members, which he's right.

[Yuki Ijuin]

A new machine is around 10k USD. You'd think there's enough people in EACH the states playing to warrant it ported over? People kept referring to their own peer groups as reference when talking about things like this, what doesn't hit them is that their own peers usually share the same interests as the person themself. That's why the sample space is convoluted and misrepresented. I see some people play Ez2dj and Popn in my local arcade that justifies it's existance, but I see MUCH MORE people playing other games like Initial D or without having to be introduced to the series and shown how to play that proves those games to be a viable investment on amusement providers' part.

The reason old styled beatgames aren't received very well is the low amount of correct rewards to the players other than sastifaction of achievements. Newer beatgames like Lumines and Rez are quick to reward players when they're playing well (Multipliers, progression in level etc). There was never a golden age for beatgames even in Japan or Korea, and now the trend for beatgames is actually moving away from these traditional beatgames. Ask Konami to port Popn over? Even if it doesn't cost money on Konami's part, they prolly won't even do it because they should be moving forward.