Newsbytes: Golden Tee 2026; Genda Americas; Rhythm Game Updates & Much More

Welcome to Newsbytes, the series of posts here on Arcade Heroes that collects various recent pieces of news from around the arcade and pinball worlds into one digestible article. It’s been a little while since the last of these, so there is a fair share of content and stories that has built up since then. Thanks to anyone (e.g. Ryan, Project and Ted) who has shared them with us and helped bring this post together.

Golden Tee 2026 Is Available Now

Once upon a time, every September marked the annual release of the world’s most successful golf game, Golden Tee. Then 2020 happened and disrupted the flow for everything, GT included. After updating the engine and getting the PGA Tour license, last year marked a return to that September release pattern, and as of September 29th, the 2026 version of Golden Tee PGA Tour is now available for arcades & bars (more the latter) to grab. This was so low key though, I almost missed it; they used to do music videos for stuff like this, but now it’s just a quiet social post. This trailer shows what comes with this release, but a quick word below that about the game:

One thing that has changed with the series, as you can see from this content release schedule, is that they have decided to increase the frequency to which they launch new content & courses – instead of waiting for the annual update to do so. I imagine that this helps the game earnings wise, but I don’t operate a GT game to know:

Unfortunately, one thing that won’t please home players of the game is this update being the last for the Legacy/LIVE Home Edition cabinets; after this one, no further versions will be released for them. That is a bit of a gamble from Incredible Technologies’ standpoint, as it will surely slow sales of them (home sales have been a big part of the series’ success), though could well help bring more people into actually playing the game in arcades.

GENDA Announces GENDA Americas

Next, something that has flew under the radar of the industry press somewhat, but is quietly significant. It’s been hard not to notice Genda’s rise outside of Japan this year, where they have now built up a strong base of locations, and are now very much aiming to repeat that success elsewhere (particularly America). This began in earnest last year with their acquisition of NEN, and has kept on rolling with the likes of Player One Amusement Group and Barberio. Now the company is consolidating all of these acquisitions under one proper umbrella for the first time, with their new “Genda Americas” subsidiary, set to open in 2026.

The below slide from one of Genda’s recent IRs details most of the specifics that have been revealed here, with their current structure and how it will then look after this consolidation has taken place. A lot of it will involve making their acquired businesses closer to each other, with the only major split being between the US and Canadian sides. The “Americas” naming is interesting too, as it seems to suggest things won’t just be limited to North America either… though whether Genda will make any moves in the South on top of this remains to be seen (the industry isn’t as big down there for various reasons, but there’s a few purchases they could make).

So what does this mean overall? More is going to be revealed as to their public plans on this on Monday, but I think that we’re going to start seeing even more changes that will ripple out into the industry. Perhaps that will mean more acquisitions and consolidations – possibly beyond just operators and distributors. I will not be too surprised if Genda will next make one or two major purchases of manufacturers (which they already have a little bit of via P1AG) and even developers on both sides of the world, though if/when that will be and who they are will obviously come down to various factors.

As we’ve been discussing for the past couple of years, the industry has been on shaky ground – sustained inflation over the course of years has hurt consumers’ pocketbooks, and their attitudes towards going out into retail haven’t improved much either, so some have been seeing less foot traffic. I’ve mentioned many times that I used to see an earnings pattern that steadily held form, but five years after lockdowns, things still haven’t stabilized – both last year and this year have been pretty lousy for me (2023 wasn’t great either, but it was slightly better). I’ve been hearing the same thing from others across the industry, to the point that the mood was reportedly negative at IAAPA Expo Europe, and there’s pessimism moving into IAAPA proper.

Can Genda’s plans change all that? We’ll have to wait and see, although for smaller ‘mom n pop’ locations like mine, we still need affordable games across all genres (not just bogstandard cranes and redemption) that can bring people in, not more FEC and cranecade chains muscling us out of viable spaces.

Rhythm Game Updates

Bandai Namco announcing their brand new Penlalive isn’t all that’s been happening in the world of rhythm games, as plenty of the established titles have been getting their regular yearly updates. We’ve had some focus on Maimai of late thanks to its US release beginning its rollout, and in Japan it has already got another version. Out since Sept. 18th, Maimai Deluxe Circle adds the usual yearly music updates, as well as the titular new “circle” function, allowing those with registered online accounts to join groups and teams. Since the US release uses the ‘International’ edition, which is slightly behind the base Japan game on instalments, players of it will have to wait a little longer, but it will be coming at some point next year.

Meanwhile over at Konami, they have just launched the 33rd version of their Bemani warhorse Beatmania IIDX, entitled Sparkle Shower. We talked a little bit about this one already when it went on test back in June, but now the full release edition is out. Unlike Maimai’s new version, this is already available to play on the US cabinets out there at Round1USA, and will be the version that comes with any machines ordered by independent arcades over here (which are supposed to be shipping out sometime early next year).

Speaking of ‘Special K’, their arcade division’s renaming to Konami Arcade Games is now fully in effect, the fifth season of their Bemani Pro League championships is set to go underway next March, and they have announced what they will be exhibiting at Japan’s Amusement Expo in November, including the new Pop’n Music cabinet, Gashaaaan!, and Super Punch Mania, the latter of which we covered recently whilst it was on test. Now to see if any of their product will appear at IAAPA that month…

Blazing Strike AC Now On Test

exA-Arcadia sure have been busy as of late, and if you’re into fighting games, then you have plenty to be excited about. In recent weeks they’ve tested and/or released Vanguard Princess R, Axel City 2: The Final Storm, Chaos Code: NEXT, and now they have begun testing Blazing Strike AC. This is on test at the Taito HEY in Akihabara, Tokyo and Game Center Kohatsu in Osaka until the 7th.

For those who missed it, this game was announced at EVO Japan earlier this year, and is based on a title that received some mixed reviews on Steam. However, exA has been putting various improvements into it to make this the definitive and proper version. They went as far as “rewriting huge parts of the game” to give it re-balanced gameplay, low input lag instead of high, a training mode, fixing all of the rendering problems, and more. It will likely be launching by the end of the year. Here’s 12 hours of a livestream from the test, in case you really want to get a solid idea of how it plays.

BTW, there is set to be a huge new game announcement coming from exA soon. This one is also a fighting game, but it’s got a license that some of you might be familiar with. Stay tuned…

Sega Amusements Names New CEO, Promotions

Last month saw the news that Paul Williams was to retire as Sega Amusements’ CEO and chairman, and now the company has announced its new CEO and management structure. Replacing Paul will be Siraj Elkhawad, who has been their finance director since 2022, whilst longstanding Sega figureheads Justin Burke (pictured below with Siraj) and Nigel Allison have been promoted to COO and R&D director, respectively. We wish the new team all the best Read more on them at InterGame.

Upcoming Shows

Finally, the month of October has a few events/shows that have something to do with arcades or pinball, although they all pale in comparison to IAAPA, which is a little over a month from now. Three events that involve our industry are happening at or about the same time this month:

• TAAPE (Thailand)
• Pinball Expo 2025 (Chicago)
• Portland Retro Game Expo (Portland)

TAAPE is essentially an Amusement Expo for Thailand, while Pinball Expo serves as kind of the same thing but just for pinball. I’d also point out that the Texas Pinball Festival used to take place around the same time this year, where a lot of announcement would happen there, but it’s now happening around Amusement Expo International time in March. The PRGE show perhaps has the least amount of focus on our industry out of those three, although next week, Alan-1 & GenXGrownUp will be unveiling the next entry in the Atari Recharged games that are coming to arcades. That game will be at both PE2025 and PRGE (hint: it’s based on one of the remakes of a vector game ).

Of these three events, I expect PE2025 to render the most new things for us to talk about. When I spoke with American Pinball a little while ago, they were expecting to unveil their next game at this show, although that still hasn’t been given a final confirmation (it wasn’t Cuphead like many were assuming, but another license). While I would expect Stern and Jersey Jack to have their latest games on hand (Star Wars #3 and Harry Potter, respectively), there will also be a lot of homebrew and boutique games there, including Big Trouble In Little China, although from this post at Knapp, it doesn’t sound like Spooky Pinball will have a new-new game there, nor will Pedretti’s be bringing their Big Bang Bar to the show.

I have heard from a fellow operator that Portal by P3 Multimorphic is an excellent game, and it is in production now, so it will be at that show, but I’m not sure about others. Note that I will not be at PE this year, as I already committed to PRGE, and they’re happening simultaneously.

As for other shows, we’ll have the Autumn Coin-Op Show over in the UK, then I heard about a Philippines amusement show happening on the 23rd-25th, but the website for it is currently down.

Headlines

Bandai Namco Celebrates 20 Years Since The Bandai + Namco Merger

Alan-1 Launches New (And Their First) Prize Merchandiser, Cosmic Spin

Best Of IAAPA Expo Europe 2025 From Sega Amusements [Video]

A Huge Cache Of Arcade Machines Are Going To Auction Tomorrow In Melbourne, Australia

Insert Coin Shares Studio Tour Footage Of Midway In The 1990s [Video]

Marvelous Releases Vol. 3 Of Their Naruto Emblem Battle Card Game

Jersey Jack Pinball Promotes “The Art Behind The Magic” On Harry Potter [Video]

Konami Brings Gashaaaan! Back For More Testing In Japan – That’s 4 A’s

Legend Roger Sharpe Opens A Pinball Apparel Company, Defiant Pinball

Betson Held Their 14th Annual Northwest Showcase In Portland Recently

Tokyo Game Show Had A New Mini Viewlix + Jaleco’s Obscure Captain Flag

One Of The Longest Running Arcades In The World Celebrates 71 Years In Business

StepManiaX Adds More Music With Update #68

Konami Tests New Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Pusher Game At Round1USA

AUTOMATON Interviews Xeen, The Little-Known Japanese Contract Developer Powerhouse In Both Arcades And Consoles – They’ve came up once or twice on here already, but Xeen really have been quietly responsible for tons of games (including GoldStorm Pirates)

Trailer For Rooster 2 Bro DX Via JNC Sales – Video; This is sold by Amusement Source International in North America

UNIS’ New Spin City Has Big, Spinning Balls [Video]

Ace Amusement’s Wild Hunting Gets A Trailer [Video]

Yuto Posts Brief Trailer For Flamestone’s Shooter Game, Dragon Knight

 [Home Headlines]

Microsoft Increases Game Pass Prices – I’ve not used this service, but I’m not surprised that this move is a tough one for them to defend.

YouTuber NaySay Charts The Rise And Fall Of Beat Saber – Once again, Meta banning the arcade version from operating just added further insult to injury after they bought it up

Kevin Williams Notes Various Reports Of VR Makers Pivoting To AR – For further proof of how VR is pretty much in freefall now

Forza Horizon 6 Has Been Announced, Will Feature Japan Heavily

SNK Announces “Neo Geo Premium Selection”, Coming Soon To Steam And PCs

Sega Arcade Heads Koha-D And Kenji Arai Talk Sonic Racing CrossWorlds, Out Now

Beep21 Starts “The Secret History Of Sega Hardware” Article Series (Paywalled)

Sega Saturn Shiro Compares Panzer Dragoon 2 With Its Upcoming Remaster

Rock Band 4 Getting Delisted From the PS Store

Super Fascinating Videos & History On The Making Of The Prince Of Persia

Lost & Found: Blues Brothers – Jukebox Adventure For The Commodore Amiga

Early Reaction From Critics On TRON: Ares Is Airing This Monday – The movie comes out next week and I plan on seeing it. I really hope that it doesn’t suck. Fingers crossed.

That’s it for this Newsbytes; which of today’s stories (e.g. Golden Tee 2026, Blazing Strike AC) interests you most?

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