DDR Ace orders are open, eAmusement support delayed

As BemaniStyle reported earlier this week, DDR Ace is now finally on the European market, thanks to the continued effort of British distributor Electrocoin. If you’re interested in buying a cab, or simply want to look at the info sheet, you can do so on their website. The reported price for the machine itself is £14.000, which at current exchange rates would translate to around 15.800€. While this is a little lower than expected, the eAmusement participation fee is a pretty hefty 270€ per month. So while there is now official Konami network support in Europe, it’s only a realistic option for bigger, already fairly profitable arcades.

One example of such an arcade is the Namco Funscape chain, perhaps the closest European equivalent to the American Bowling/Arcade franchise Round1. According to BemaniStyle, their Manchester location has already had a DDR Ace installed, and it is likely that other branches like London or Norwich is going to follow. According to Toby7Ten from Las Vegas London, orders for another 17 machines have been placed, but no further details are known yet. Who knows, perhaps there will be a few coming to mainland Europe as well? If they do, however, they might have to wait a few more months until they can be hooked up to the same eAmusement service that also serves North American and Japanese players, as Konami is currently checking whether or not their service is compliant to newly enacted EU laws.