Hi everyone, 5outh5ide here.
As you may all have known already, Sega’s rhythm game side has been hit with constant trouble as of late. It went from them having to repair their web portals due to the recent PHP vulnerability, taking down all of it for a few days with the games still at least being playable, to now a complete shut down of the ALL.NET service since 1 Nov 2026 as they discovered illegal access on their backend, with no final date on when it will return back up.
With the shutdown, all of the Sega rhythm games worldwide and also Taiko no Tatsujin in JP do not have network access. The games are all still playable, but without the network, there is minimal reason to play as progress is not saved and you can’t work on any events in game.
The only remaining rhythm games in the arcade currently that are still online are Konami’s Bemani titles (and also Pump It Up if it’s there), but unfortunately it seems that there hasn’t been any crossing over of the sorts, with all the Sega mains either not coming to the arcade or persisting with offline play.
Scenes post ALL.NET death at the Yurakucho rhythm game arcade in Macau (from @eraiidx)
This situation been a constant throughout the past few years since Sega’s Gekichumai (GCM) games exploded in popularity right around the same time the Bemani series began to struggle with current and new audiences. People love Sega’s approach to their rhythm games, with how easy and approachable the games are and a large commitment to catering the content to their playerbase.
Meanwhile, Bemani struggled during that period with their public image while being under Konami Amusement, which made a lot of players less willing to support them. This is on top of their games being considered much more difficult to start and keep up with, especially comparing them to how GCM operates.
It has been a few years since what I could call the shift began, and while I was personally worried that things might get worse for Bemani, I was surprised to see that Sega had begun to stumble with handling GCM, especially in the case of the International version, where there has been more than a few incidents.
What took me even more by surprise was the resurgence of Bemani through the creation of a new company arm run by their very own DJ Yoshitaka, where he and the current Bemani team are trying their best to right the ship and fix its reputation.
Regardless of how the situation has changed for both games, as we have seen above, people still aren’t really interested in crossing the bridge. It has become a pretty hot button topic for a few days where Bemani mains are encouraging GCM mains to potentially start any of the games while ALL.NET is currently down.
It hasn’t been met with much enthusiasm from the GCM mains, which is somewhat saddening to me. It’s something that has been in my mind for the past few days, so I would like to bring up some points I had in mind about the Bemani/Sega divide, with the hopes that we could go beyond any differences we might have.
This is something I particularly dislike when it comes towards some Bemani fans, as I sometimes feel that these people are just needlessly negative or come into things expecting the worst with anything regarding Konami or Bemani.
I honestly believe a lot of people are turned away from wanting to try the games because of all the negativity that gets pushed out from the Bemani playerbase. It’s especially frustrating to see the same people lament on why people stick to other games or wonder why people purposely leave out Bemani when it comes to other rhythm game series.
I think it’s good to not always be accepting of everything, not overly praise certain things, and also criticize things when there are problems. But in the position of one of the least favored series/devs within the rhythm game market, I myself definitely think about how non Bemani people would see how we react towards Bemani.
I get that people were burned by a lot of Konami’s decisions over the years and that at a certain point, we could safely assume the worst was happening. But if people stay within the community and can’t even muster a single positive thing to say, then it is absolutely not a surprise that people looking in wouldn’t feel like there is anything to support.
I think a lot of the recent selling of Bemani towards the GCM community is very much fixed in asking them to give the games a play. While this is definitely what I would suggest to people who haven’t given it an opportunity yet, it seems apparent that for most people, the games are probably way too different and more “oppressive” for them coming from GCM.
It’s something that I have recently expressed publicly, and it is how I feel that people could also be sold on the idea of being more of a “passive” fan of the Bemani series through other ways. Things like just following the new songs that come out for the games, keeping up with events such as the Bemani Pro League or any of the EDP/Beatnation live concerts, or get into the equally diverse cast of characters that are in all of the series (especially in IIDX/SDVX/pop’n music).
There’s some valid criticism people have with regards to this, especially problems with accessibility of Bemani content (lack of cabinets, no easily available OSTs in streaming services) and maybe just the fact that a majority of players don’t enter communities without playing the games.
I personally think that only feeling that you can be part of a community through one single way is a myopic mindset. A lot of the loyal JP Bemani playerbase also consists of extremely passionate people who aren’t necessarily high level players.
I’ve seen 20+ year fans who aren’t even 5th dan on IIDX. We all likely know how passionate the pop’n community are with its universe and some don’t have much access to the games. Many artists who contribute back to SDVX art contests are not necessarily frequent players.
I totally feel anyone can be a Bemani fan without having to be a frequent player.
Sending this image to a 2019 Bemani fan would probably make them cry tears of joy.
I totally understand that Bemani has sort of an “elitist” vibe to most people outside. There’s definitely been a lot of ribbing towards the other rhythm game communities, and I know there are some GCM and other rhythm game mains who fear that they may be looked down upon within the Bemani community due to the reputation the newer rhythm game communities have.
As a person deeply in the Bemani community myself, I can say that most if not almost every single one of the “try out Bemani” posts made recently were made with genuine intentions for people to branch out and potentially find something new. I think most veterans are very cognizant of the situation the series is in, and knowing how fiercely loyal GCM mains are, there would definitely have to be some form of discussion and easing in to how the games are.
It’s definitely not been the smoothest sell so far, but I really would like for people who are still worried about it to not worry. From me, most Bemani mains have no expectation for you to quit whatever you were maining, nor for you to spend lesser time on things you enjoy most.
Probably the best way of putting it (from [@rakudachanbeam](https://x.com/rakudachanbeam/status/2118280099661500757))