It has been teased for a while now that Dave & Busters was doing something with Konami’s popular Dance Dance Revolution series this Summer but it wasn’t clear until today what that would entail.
Thanks to this post by Bemanistyle, we learn that Dave & Busters is going to be testing out the latest version of the DDR series, DDR A. In fact the company has launched a page to promote the game, which you can see here.
From that, we learn that multiple locations are going to be showcasing the game, which has over 650 songs, e-Amusement Pass support (online features which include a player account, events, tournaments, unlockables, etc.), full localization in English and some licenses of Western songs that include names like Pharrell Williams and Selena Gomez.
If the tests work out then D&B will be adding more DDR A units to their locations.
UPDATE: Thanks to a tipster that has passed along accurate info before, Round1USA is also getting DDR A “within the next two weeks”.
All @Round1USA locations are also getting DDR A over the next two weeks.
— OMG KON! (@OMG_KON) July 6, 2016
Of course the question that everyone else will be asking is how do you get your hands on one of these DDR A units if you aren’t Dave & Busters? Unless a distribution channel in the US announces that they will be carrying the game then other locations will be out-of-luck (excepting, most likely, Round1USA). However a successful test would mean that Konami would see the benefits of offering a wide release so we’ll just have to keep an eye on that; in the mean time, if you want to play the newest DDR, visit one of those D&B locations later this month!
Konami USA and Latin America replied to my query about who is the “official” distribuitor of DDR A in Americas saying that Betson Enterprises is the official distribution channel, but Betson don’t confirm it so far.
However, in Europe, Electrocoin confirmed the distribution of DDR A in Europe with another licenses that will be exclusive for the european edition of DDR A which also gonna have eAmuse service.
Awesome work, thanks for sharing. I expected Betson to be the company since they are one of the few that still maintains stock. But like most distributors these days, they are not very good at actually advertising what it is that they have.
According to Bemani Benelux community, the european edition of DDR A will be exactly the same that american, korean, asian and japanese edition in music repertory.
Otherwise, I sent a mail to UNIANA to query if they are authorized for sell the DDR A cabinets to Latin America, and they confirmed that the sale of the cabinets maufactured by they are limited to South Korea and the distribution of this cabinets in Asia is being managed by Konami Asia.
The IAAPA Expo 2016 is comming, so it’s question of time that Betson (and/or another amusement machine company such Universal Space) confirm or not the avariability of DDR A cabinets for the Americas.