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It’s now February, which means that we’re a month and a half away from the next major arcade industry trade show, Amusement Expo International. It’s often been called “the Spring show”, “the AMOA show”, or depending on your context, just “Expo” – depends on how long you’ve been in the industry. That said, we don’t often hear about games coming to the show until things are much closer, but that has been broken due to a surprise advance announcement from Velocity eSports. Let’s get into what we know about Maimai DX coming to Amusement Expo 2025…
Maimai Recap
As a refresher, Maimai is the legendary rhythm game by Sega in Japan and Asia that “looks like a washing machine”. It’s built up a powerful pop-cult following all around the world, even in the West where there is no console or mobile version to bolster that, and finding an arcade example is rare. That’s because there has been no official launch of the game to the West, so it’s been the occasional grey import, or interested players finding one while living or travelling overseas.
This is why it was somewhat unexpected to see the game appearing on location test here in the States last year – first at Round1USA Puente Hills, then Dave & Busters Dallas, and finally at Velocity eSports Schaumburg since last December. While out East the game relied on internet connected features, the online portion has been notably deactivated for that last test.
Unlike fellow Japanese rhythm game Taiko No Tatsujin, however, it didn’t make an appearance at IAAPA 2024. Some were disappointed by that but it’s worth noting that Taiko did take its time in finally appearing at a trade show; that event was its debut, as prolonged licensing neccessities stopped it from being shown off sooner. It was assumed this would also be the case with Maimai, if at all, with a Round1USA exclusive release seeming most likely in the minds of many – but perhaps that won’t be the case anymore…
Maimai DX Coming To Amusement Expo 2025
Earlier in the week, Velocity eSports put out a low-key message both on their Discord server and on Twitter/X, asking for six good Maimai players to contact them, as they are working with Sega to support the game’s appearance at Amusement Expo 2025. Expenses will be covered for those who are accepted. In the Discord message, it was specifically stated that they have been working with Sega Amusements International on their test – whose involvement with this game has prior been an open question mark.
And now, a few days after this news came through, a spokesperson at Sega Amusements has confirmed to me that the game will be at Amusement Expo. To directly quote them: “there are limited numbers of games to be released into the market, so avid players and fans should ask their Arcade Managers/Owners to get on the buy list as soon as possible”. I also imagine that this means that the game will start showing up on distributor websites here soon, although at this time, the game is not listed on Sega Amusements’ website yet either.
I would also note that the spokesperson did not detail anything about the online services, song list, pricing, or software build. Again, I do imagine that info will be given to distributors soon.
Having fans of a rhythm game come to expo is not unusual, as it’s often how these types of games go on display at shows. A lot of operators are not necessarily gamers – or the kind of gamer with the co-ordination needed to play a rhythm game well. So, these players will show off the game, so that interested buyers can see how it might draw attention in their venue. Although, there are certain games I’ve seen that operators will play, then others where I’ve only seen the fans giving it a try.
Until we hear more, we’ll have to wait and see, but overall I think that this is great news. Further questions that are still up in the air: what about the online features – will it have them and will they have a cost? If so, what is that cost? How many songs will it have? Will it have any licensed US songs or will its song playlist differ from the other overseas versions? How much will a unit cost? And myriads more. Most or all of these should be answered at the Expo, if not beforehand.
What are your thoughts on this latest news about Maimai DX? Would you like to see it at an arcade?
