In Japan, last year saw both the final edition of JAEPO, the country’s main arcade show that had been held each February since 2013, and their new Amusement Expo – a reworked and reformatted trade event for November, to address concerns in the post-COVID reality of the business. That event was only done on one day, and just after IAAPA, meaning it wasn’t so well attended despite most of the major Japanese companies appearing. This year, it is still inconveniently being held very close to it – but now right beforehand, and on two days again (one for business, one for the general public) as JAEPO had been.
Fortunately, unlike other arcade shows out of Asia, a lot of what goes on at Japan’s expo is more accessible and publicized. There will as such be numerous major announcements to come surrounding the expo, with some already from exA-Arcadia and likely more still from others… but just before it all begins, here we have a quick preview of the exhibitors and what they have already revealed to be showing on their booths.
Bandai Namco Amusement
Bandai Namco Amusement arguably remain one of the most significant companies on the Japanese scene, and the preview of their booth they have shown certainly bears that out. Alongside big showcases for the yet-to-be-released Idolm@ster Tours, and soon-to-appear in the US Taiko No Tatsujin, they will also have the release build of GoldStorm Pirates (already appearing at some Namco locations in Japan). Plus, they will show a title we haven’t seen for a little while – Bike Dash Delivery. That was on test earlier this year in the US and Japan, but is only reappearing now; time will only tell if it goes further than this…
Rumors suggest that Bandai Namco will also make at least one big announcement for a certain racing game series… but whether that will happen or not also remains to be seen. Either way, as has been noticed on the AH Discord some interesting patents have been assigned to them of late, including one for an unknown motion driver cabinet – so something seems to be happening.
Capcom
Capcom’s relationship with arcades has been odd ever since they closed their US arcade division back in 2001. Like last year’s Amusement Expo they will be around here, and do still have a chain of locations throughout Japan, but even so, major games like Street Fighter 6 Type Arcade are handed off to others like Taito. One new thing they did show off last time was a Street Fighter VR game; that ended up releasing for consumer platforms instead, and in its place here will be something else – Onimusha VR Shadow Team. This will be the first time the Onimusha hack and slash games grace arcades, having always been a console series… though whether it will be anything more than an exclusive for their locations is unknown.
Street Fighter hasn’t been forgotten about, however, as Capcom will also be hosting an eSports Club for the game and other titles, as well as some capsule toy and prize displays. And the Type Arcade edition of Street Fighter 6 that launched late last year will be available again on Taito’s booth (more on that later).
exA-Arcadia
exA-Arcadia will be making a fast turnaround, attending both this show and IAAPA next week. That will require a lot of work, but the rewarding part for us will be many announcements and early showings for their upcoming slate of several new games. These started with an exALive stream held yesterday morning. While a good portion of it covered titles that we’ve heard about previously (like Jitsu Squad Feat. Samurai Pizza Cats and Batsugun Exa Label – the latter of which is now getting a 1.5 edition), there were a few bigger announcements already made that can be found below and on this bigger rundown of them:
The first announcement is for support of a 2 1/4″ diameter trackball; meanwhile, the new games already unveiled include Wild Guns Rawhide (NatsumeAtari), Demon Front Exa Label (IGS) and Earthion Exa Label (Ancient), which take Wild Guns Reloaded, the 2002 Metal Slug-like, and Yuzo Koshiro’s new indie Mega Drive shooter and rework them. There is also two original efforts – Cyberblocker R (kt. software) and Bunny Bomber Blast! (Hiulit’s Game Studio). For details on the next new reveals to come, check back soon…
Konami
The main display of interest for many on Konami‘s booth will inevitably be the shiny new “Arena” cabinets for the guitar/drum wing of their BEMANI games, Gitadora, which have been seen on test a few times in Japan since September. Those will be heavily promoted with a stage event involving members from major teams of their BEMANI Pro League tournaments, and a photo opportunity area, the latter being something that a number of companies here are planning to do for that extra social media engagement from their devoted fans. Outside of a few statues and themed areas, it’s surprising that isn’t done more at IAAPA.
Gitadora is not the only thing here though: there will also be Konami’s new sequel to their original kids trading card game Monster Retsuden Oreca Battle, and – yes – the Japanese version of Minecraft Dungeons Arcade. The reaction to that getting a release in Japan soon will definitely be interesting to track, although whether or not the relationship they have with Raw Thrills will be reciprocated with the likes of Contra Burst getting a wider release outside of Round1USA remains to be seen.
Sega
While Sega Amusements continue on their own path providing games for the Western scene, their original superiors in Japan also remain in the arcade business. Granted, that is a bit reduced from where they once were, with the two big focuses for their booth being several new medal games (ergo redemption) and their lucrative UFO Catcher businesses – but Sega will still have a few displays away from that of slight interest. The largest looks like one of their first attempts at holding a team-based competitive tournament for the latest edition of Initial D The Arcade, which will receive a big stage event as illustrated below:
Besides that, there are a couple of other known curiosities. One will be a new interactive card vending kiddie ride based on Paw Patrol, which was recently spotted on test. The other is a “Sega Arcade History” area, featuring the likes of their first major release (the SEGA-1000 jukebox) and their photo booths that were a huge success in Japan during the 1990s (of which new iterations are still being made). Could there be any surprise announcements like Virtua Fighter 3tb Online last year? Who knows…
Taito
Like Sega, Taito are also still around, even if their traditional arcade releases have slowed down somewhat under Square Enix. They have at least held onto a pretty strong location business with their Taito Station centers and other LBE concepts, though those are not necessarily always focused on video games or traditional coin-op now. Owing to that status, some of the interactive experiences you can find from them on their booth include their Rakugakids children’s play center doodle game, and another new Space Invaders attraction, Space Invaders Strike, which fuses the property with baseball and a immersive reality room.
Alongside those, there will also be a special event surrounding the aforementioned Street Fighter 6 Type Arcade, which Taito handles, and a lot of focus on their prize business. Plus, for those who want to meet Bub of Bubble Bobble fame… he will be around on the booth to lend a hand too 🙂
Other
So those are all the bigger players that will be attending Japan’s Amusement Expo this year – however, it sounds like there will be a decent turnout from others as well. For a few interesting companies with smaller presences, GiGO are going to make their return to the show floor with some actual original machines this time (they were there last year but with very little), whilst the Chinese crane and prize-focused company Dreamfuns look likely to be making waves following the establishment of their first proper base in Japan.
A big part of the reformatted appeal of the show will also lie in its side events. There will be a few of those happening on the second day for the general public, but the largest of those is naturally going to be the Amusement Music Festival, which brings together the main four rhythm game developers (Konami, Sega, Bandai Namco, Taito) and artists who make music for them into one big stage show. Unfortunately though, that has caused a little bit of controversy, with overseas fans unable to get tickets easily…
Stay tuned for coverage of the show from afar during the next couple days; although AH won’t be around on the expo floor, there is usually enough to piece together from Japanese social media and games press coverage to make it all worthwhile. As an aside, our livestream preview for IAAPA will be happening soon too – the post will go up later, though, just so that the site coverage of this first event doesn’t clash.
For now, which of the booth previews of the Japan Amusement Expo 2024 interest you most?
