Newsbytes: EAG 2026, New Pop’n Music, Time Crisis Turns 30 & More

Welcome to the last 2025 edition of Newsbytes, the series of posts here on Arcade Heroes that rounds up byte-sized pieces of news from around the worlds of arcades and pinball. We usually aim these to launch on the weekend, but there can be exceptions. We have just started the first day of winter for the Northern hemisphere, which means that the holidays are also upon us, with many companies and operators in the business shutting up shop or reducing their hours accordingly to celebrate. But before the big day as well as the end of 2025, we have all the arcade happenings that have been going on in the run-up to it. Stay tuned to the site after this too for our final Location Watch of the year, an update on exA-Arcadia, and annual Year-In-Review.

As a quick request, if you are with a manufacturer, please check our 2025 Arcade & Pinball Releases page. If there is something that we’ve missed as to a game that is shipping, please let us know so we can get the right information on the board as we move into 2026. All right, let’s get into the news…

EAG 2026

The first major trade show of next year is now fast approaching, as the UK’s main amusement expo, EAG, is set to take place at the London ExCel. We will have full coverage of it as usual, but there has already been confirmation from a few companies for some of what they will bring there, with Bandai Namco announcing Mini World, Giga Shot, and the return of GoldStorm Pirates (which made a pre-release appearance last year). Sega Amusements have also been promoting some of their offerings like Subsoccer Arcade in advance of the show; there is a possibility they may have a new content update for a certain racing game, but nothing has been officially revealed by them on that front so far.

Then something that has not been outright announced but has been inevitably doing the rounds in rhythm game circles is the imminent appearance of a new Dance Dance Revolution model. The existence of this has apparently been fairly common knowledge ever since a buyer’s list mentioning it quietly emerged for Konami’s USA sales earlier this year, but the new DDR is in fact going to debut at EAG. Only a small advert randomly placed by European distributors Electrocoin in The Stinger Report has illustrated the cabinet so far, though from the looks of things it is going to be a new platinum iteration of the gold-colored cabinets that have have been around since 2019; thanks to Ted for originally discovering this.

Also, while we don’t have any clear photos of this yet either, word on the street is that Taiko no Tatsujin has finally begun testing in the UK. It’s been asked that the location be kept secret so that they can properly gauge how it will do without media attention (if anyone discovers where it is sited, please keep that in mind), but we wanted to acknowledge that we are aware of it, and that this is more interesting news for the arcade rhythm game scene in Europe. However, this does not mean that production/shipping is happening there at this time. It also doesn’t mean that it will show up at EAG, given how long it took the game to appear at IAAPA after testing in the US, but you never know…

New Pop’n Music

Continuing the rhythm game focus, Japan is getting some action on that front just in time for the holidays, as the newest edition of Konami’s colorful Pop’n Music rhythm game, High Cheers, has just launched over there to much fanfare (some locations like the big GiGO in Ikebukuro have got big screens and standees for it). This was tested earlier in the year, owing to it incorporating a brand new cabinet design as well as the usual version upgrade adding music. Like the aforementioned new DDR model, it was also featured on Konami’s product list for the US, so expect it to start showing up at some locations here soon too.

Here’s one of the new song introduction videos, while the official Japanese website can be found here.

Time Crisis Turns 30

It’s time to mark some history, as 30 years ago this month, one of the most beloved arcade series of all time got its start. Blasting its way into arcades in December of 1995, Namco’s Time Crisis followed in the footsteps of Sega’s Virtua Cop by reinvigorating light-gun shooters. It was among the first full 3D titles in the genre, and its pedal-powered success established a long-running franchise in the process, with the most recent entry being 2015’s Time Crisis 5. The original was only made for one player, but all the mainline sequels used twin or linkable cabinets for some of the best head to head two player action out there.

Besides Sega’s subsequent light-gun hit House of the Dead, it’s hard to think of another ongoing gun game series that has had such a lasting impact, as both spawned numerous sequels and spin-offs. It is a shame we haven’t had a new entry in either for a little while now, but you can still find them at scores of arcades across the world. I myself have a Time Crisis II and 3 (pictured above), although both presently have technical issues. When they work though, they’re such great games with distinctive personalities and sharp design that helps them stand the test of… well, time. Which installment in the series is your favorite?

Arcade1Up Bought By Basic Fun

One story that has inevitably been given more attention than nearly all arcade news this year is the state of Arcade1Up, the company that rose to prominence during the late 2010s and COVID-19 pandemic for offering arcade cabinet replicas intended to fit neatly into any home’s mancave or rec room. It got to the point where certain actual arcades controversially started operating them (ironically enough, one more opened recently; I also did a video to warn against doing it), but they may want to think twice about that now as the company’s future has been looking dicey – albeit not completely doomed, as it now turns out. Whilst numerous reports suggested they would be closing for good (with all employees being let go), their assets have been purchased by Basic Fun, purveyors of various children’s toys including Arcade Classics.

This isn’t all that much of a surprise, given that the COVID-19 period seemed to be their peak with people ordering their cabinets for homes in the absence of physical locations, and now that the real thing is readily available to most, they aren’t a strong enough alternative. They apparently also had various licensing payment difficulties with some of the companies they struck deals with, which can’t have helped. The extent to which Basic Fun maintains what they were doing before remains to be seen.

The Godzilla Destroyed By A Keg… Or Not?

Finally, we have something of a saga that recently went viral for all the wrong reasons. It all started at Empire Alternarcade in Townsville, Australia, when they made a post claiming that their Godzilla pinball table had been attacked and broken by a disgruntled customer who went to the extremes of throwing a keg at the machine. However, suspicions were immediately raised when people started pointing out how the damage doesn’t fully add up with how a loaded keg would actually impact it if thrown. These comments were then mysteriously all deleted by the location, which isn’t a great look; however, they do seem to be operating on a ‘all publicity is good publicity’ basis, so whoever broke the glass, they’ve taken someone’s screw-up and won the shameless gambit for recognition at the end of the day…

Headlines

Maximum Tune 5DX+ Main Draw Online Championship Match Begins Today For North American Games

Kaga Aims To Release Top Gun Maverick In Japan Next Summer

NBA Superstars Now Has 2026 Team Roster Updates

Alan-1 Begins Shipping Non-Coin Atari PONG Tables

Spooky Pinball Releases The “Dead Bar” Mod For Evil Dead

A Look At Beetlejuice On The Production Line At Spooky

A Homebrewer Is Making A Totoro Pinball – Which has grabbed some attention on Japanese Twitter/X

Knapp Arcade’s Exclusive Cobra Kai Pinball Homebrew Machines Interview

Sega Launches Chunithm X-Verse-X In Japan

Dead Heat Unleashed Motion Is Coming To Australia

New Trailer For Wahlap/LAI’s Phantom Vanguard

New Osaka Track For Asphalt Moto Blitz DX

New Promo For Monster Eye 3: Theater Edition

UNIS + Wahlap Exhibit Their Latest Games At The Zhongshan Expo

Location-Based Entertainment (LBE) Includes Arcades, And Growth Is Foreseen – This might not be taking into account what happens if there’s a gaming market crash, as discussed below.

[Home Headlines]

Are We At The Beginning Of A Console Crash? <- Some analysis here, as it’s something that I think has affected certain arcades too to some extent. Sales have been down at my location all year, but it’s a continued trend that started in 2022 and has kept going. The simplest answer I can proffer is that sustained inflation over the course of several years hurts the consumer wallet so they have to focus on necessities instead of wants. Add to that, AAA consumer studios have had mostly poor output in recent years, with lower budget indie games often being more interesting (as shown from the next headline), but those AAA flops come at a big cost to both bottom lines as well as trust. The flops have also resulted in many lost jobs.

It doesn’t help that the insatiable chase after AI results in higher demand, and thus lower supply and higher cost, on components needed for gaming devices (DRAM and graphics cards), then of course there’s the adjacent bleed into higher electrical costs from that demand. All of that affects arcades too. Assuming that this market contraction is a crash, just keep in mind – these things don’t last forever and if we see an eventual drop in prices, along with some new innovations, that can bring things back. Rant mode off…

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Sweeps The Game Awards – But Gets Backlash For Revealing AI Usage – I find this last one to be a little harsh from the Indie Game Awards’ side. Removing the award for AI art on a single lamp-post (which was patched out, so it isn’t there anymore) crosses over into witchhunt territory. I’m no fan of Gen AI either, but we need to find a balance and draw clear lines that are established beforehand (which are reasonable – not overzealous), otherwise this is going to further create divisions and not be help the industry move forward as it enters into a possible crash period. At the end of the day, gaming is supposed to be about fun, and I think some in the business can lose sight of that.

Netflix Acquires Ready Player Me

Previously Lost Games From The Sega Channel Have Been Saved

Google Ends Support For The Sega Dreamcast Web Browser – Which few people knew was still working until this story came up

Namco’s Proto-Smash Bros Arcade Brawler The Outfoxies Comes To Arcade Archives

Space Invaders Will Be The 500th Arcade Archives Release By Hamster – Perhaps an anticlimax, but you can’t deny its significance

That’s it for this Newsbytes; which of the above stories (e.g. the new Pop’n Music) interests you most?

Happy Holidays!

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