Welcome to our first of several Arcade Recaps, where we will take a look at recently-revealed games at tradeshows like Amusement Expo 2025 and give one game a spotlight at a time. The purpose of this is all because it is very easy for a game to get lost in the amount of news that floods out of a trade show, especially with others (e.g. China’s AAA) still on the horizon too. We’ll start things off with Sega’s Maimai DX rhythm game, as I have also just confirmed some more information on it with a high-up representative. Stay tuned for other games to get this highlight as well.
Maimai DX – The Details
In case you have missed our previous coverage on this game, Maimai DX is the Japanese hand-controlled rhythm game that “looks like a washing machine.” It has been a big hit across Asia since the first version of the game launched back in 2012, with many content updates following, and the second DX generation we see here has been available from 2019. Despite never being officially supported in the West, it has gained a strong notoriety in arcade culture, and fans have been waiting for an official release in North America for over a decade. Those fans were rewarded for their patience with location tests of the game last year, and its appearance at Amusement Expo 2025:
Those who have been following news on this one closely may have seen that Ikigai Arcade has been providing a lot of information about it, as they are one of the first locations to be purchasing a cabinet from Sega Amusements and have asked their contact a number of questions. I sent another message to mine at the company as well to get some clarification, so here’s the latest:
- The game is being manufactured in South Korea, with production beginning in June/July
- Shipping is still being planned for late Aug/Sept.
- Demand has been high and the first production run is “almost sold out.”
- MSRP is still $30,995 (which includes the routers), but this might change depending on what tariff costs are from Korea at the end of the summer.
- There are “no other monthly fees”.
- From Jan 2028 there will be an annual charge of approx. $2000 for the upgrade kits for its twice-yearly new versions (e.g. the current Maimai DX Prism), which include between new 200-300 songs. The $2000 pays for two upgrades during the year.
- The US version will follow with the updates that the game sees in Japan via the existing ‘International’ version for Asia, so there won’t be a situation where it gets 2/3/4 versions behind.
- A release in Europe is still TBD decision, depending on the North American roll-out and licensing.
While I also checked in about the online maintenance period that puts the machine offline for a few hours (thus closing off access to some songs and all online features while it does its thing, although it is still playable) as this was happening during 3pm-6pm during the tests, that’s an answer that we’ll have to wait on from the Japanese side. We’ll update here and on social media once it comes along.
One other thing that I wanted to address, as this came up in the YouTube comments, is the price. I was hoping that it would have been lower to start, but that had been determined before any tariffs had been mentioned. We’ve been at prices above $20k & $30k on a lot of games over the past few years, which isn’t something that I like getting used to, but something you have to adapt to nonetheless.
As mentioned above, whether or not the MSRP changes depends on how things turn out. I don’t think that panicking and assuming the worse is worth the effort, and Sega was already building these outside of China, where most of the cost increases might come from. Although as I had responded to one comment about it, if the game were to go up another $1k~2k, I don’t see how that dissuade anyone from buying if you already weren’t sold at $31k. Of course, if it added $10k to the price then that would be a different matter, but Korea is not the main target of current trade negotiations, so at the moment I don’t see it getting a substantial increase.
That should get us up-to-speed on the latest regarding Maimai DX for now – although stay tuned, as we will have a recap on another one of Sega Amusements’ upcoming arcade titles, Alpha Ops VR Strike, when it ships next month across the whole of the West. What are your expectations for Maimai DX’s North American release?
