Konami planning to localize Guitar Freaks and DrumMania in 08?

If the email was from Jason Enos, then Bemani fans should be worried. He messed up with the American version of Beatmania. Well, not entirely.. most people got it for the redesigned controller.

i hardly think it was Enos’s fault. The american version of beatmania was mostly out of KOA’s control and was developed by the people who did pop’n home versions in japan. Talk about giving the reins to people who have little idea what the american market is like…

I think KOJ is realizing a HUGE potential market now for music games, not just drum and guitar, but possibly another shot at beatmania. And didnt KOJ change their CEO recently?

Pretty sure they are already testing GFDM V4 in America, the default sort shows English songs, and they can indeed battle online with players in Japan.

Too little, too late.

GFdm V4 WERE tested in the US (Naperville,IL to be exact) back in October/early November and it is pretty well known that Konami has some release plan for the U.S. regarding arcade music titles.

My question is, where were you guys like 6 months ago when all of this stuff first came up. Konami finally localizing arcade music titles has been common knowledge in the Bemani community since like June.

When I emailed I was asking about localizing in Europe, not many rhythm games make it over here even when they land in the states, for example, Taiko Drum Master.

The person who replied was talking about the European market and not the American which, like you said, had already had the games tested there.

I emailed Namco as well asking the same thing but they said they had no plans to release Taiko Drum Master for the European market or back in the American due to poor sales.

That’s not what my point was. As a fan of the series it really bothers me that no one really bothered to take notice earlier. This news was submitted several times to many different game blogs and websites when it was first announced for the US (both IIDX, GFdm and e-amuse mind you) and no one posted it. It made it’s way on the front pages of all of the music game websites, but no one else seemed to give a shit then.

Now you get a half-assed confirmation that the games are coming out in the UK and it gets posted. GFdm V4 already tested in both areas, it did well in the U.S. because of the die hard fans but I can’t help but think it’d have done even better if at least one major gaming news site had bothered to post it, but since it wasn’t Rock Band or Guitar Hero none of them cared enough to give it the time of day and it sucks pretty hard.