Welcome to the first arcade post of 2026, where we start the year off with some a brand new arcade launch for Europe of the rhythm gaming variety. Official releases for Konami’s world famous dance game, Dance Dance Revolution (DDR), have been uneven outside of Asia in recent years, despite it being found at Round1USA (like other Bemani titles), and Dave & Busters (albeit without updates in recent times).
One other part of the world where things have been far more inconsistent is Europe, where long-standing distributors Electrocoin have continued to hold exclusive rights for Konami titles, and brought over DDR occasionally in an exclusively offline capacity. The last time they did this was for its A20+ iteration, which received numerous production runs even after new versions of the game released elsewhere.
However, with today’s news, we have confirmation that Europe be receiving the latest of those, Dance Dance Revolution World, at long last – and a shiny new ‘Universal’ cabinet to boot. Let’s dive in:
Dance Dance Revolution World Comes To Europe
First off, thanks to The Stinger Report for passing this information along:
Electrocoin will drive the music game revolution during EAG 2026 with the latest example of their partnership with veteran Japanese amusement corporation KONAMI, which saw the successful deployment in the EMEA region of ‘Dance Dance Revolution A20 Plus.’
Following this, Electrocoin has been working over the last two-years with KONAMI to release ‘Dance Dance Revolution World – Universal Cabinet’ – a brand-new game in the long-running series which comprises a bigger monitor and eye-catching LED illuminated dance pad. This comes 28 years after the original ‘revolutionized’ the Western rhythm gaming market.
The World edition of DDR features licensed music from blockbuster artists such as Ariana Grande, Dua Lipa, LMFAO, and Porter Robinson, with more to follow.
Electrocoin has exclusively air-freighted into London one of the very first production units of the game, so that show attendees will be the first to see this music game in action.
For EAG, this is an annual expo held in London, UK in January, and since last year it additionally includes the Social Immersive Entertainment Expo. When it comes to out-of-home social fun in Europe, this is the show to check out (the likes of Sega Amusements and Bandai Namco also appear there).
There have been numerous teases of this news recently; we made mention of some in a recent Newsbytes, and Electrocoin also started promoting it at their own Funland arcade in London with posters (one of which can be seen above). We now have the full details though, so let’s jump right into those.
DDR World – The Game
In case you aren’t familiar with this version of DDR (which some may not be, given the uneven availability outside of Japan), it’s been out for nearly two years now in Asia and at Round1USA locations, so there are quite a few videos that show people playing the songs. This upload by s34nVideos provides a decent review, and you can similarly find plenty of footage of it getting play out in North America at Round1.
The update was the first major overhaul of the game since DDR A/Ace (one of the titles Electrocoin brought over), with subsequent versions up to this one all being revised editions of that. However, World was simply pushed to existing cabinets in the regions that received it – whereas in Europe, it will be launching with a new coat of paint hardware-wise too, which is also worth taking a closer look at.
DDR World – The ‘Universal’ Cabinet
Alongside the new software for Europe, they are notably the first to receive a different DDR cabinet as well. This design isn’t new-new, per se, being a recolored platinum version of the 20th Anniversary gold edition originally released in Asia and at Round1USA locations in 2019. Europe did not get these, continuing to receive older white cabinets, but Konami and Electrocoin would seem to be making up for that by surprisingly premiering this iteration in the UK first, before the US or even Japan.
As already mentioned, the official title for these cabinets is ‘Universal’, keeping the space-themed naming scheme going. Long-time DDR players will remember that the series has flirted with that before in the Supernova games… wonder if we’ll be seeing a DDR Galaxy appearing next 😛
It should also be noted that last year, a price list for Konami’s arcade sales to US locations outside of Round1USA did the rounds in rhythm game circles, mentioning a new DDR (as well as Pop’n Music and other Bemani titles) – meaning that it will be coming to North America at some point down the line. The last word on this was that the cabinets would be shipping out around about this time, though there is still no concrete sign of them yet as of writing. Ultimately Konami’s new strategy out in the States has been unusual thus far, operating outside of the normal way of how these things are handled by most companies in the West. Until that changes, any of their releases in the US should be going to select places they already reached out to last year, but if you really want one, it comes down to strong connections with them, as opposed to calling up your distributor. Hopefully that can change soon.
Finally, one sticking point for many players that can’t go unmentioned is whether this new release will be connectable to Konami’s e-Amusement network in Europe too. As ever, the answer looks to be ‘no,’ despite Pump It Up and StepManiaX (which will also be at EAG as usual on the UDC booth) having their online features available over there. It would be a nice surprise if the opposite was true, but for now it looks like no change on that front. This may be disappointing (though not surprising) for some, since it will generally be available online in North America, however this is how it is currently.
Whether this will ever appear at a North American trade show is another matter entirely, as there was no sign of Konami product at IAAPA, making their approach to this market even odder. Who knows whether they will exhibit through someone at Amusement Expo in March or not… but for now, what do you think of the new Universal cabinets and Dance Dance Revolution World release in Europe?
