List of Bemani franchises:
Despite being developed outside of Japan and having little to do with Konami's other music products, Rock Revolution is considered to be part of the Bemani line. A Bemani title called "Rap Freaks" was tested in 2000 and shown at AOU the same year but never saw the light of day. Also while originally being billed as it's own spin off, Dance Evolution was recently added to the ranks when Dance Evolution Arcade was released.
Since its introduction in 1997, Konami's BEMANI franchise has remained a powerhouse in Japanese arcades. Nationwide competitions have been held several times to crown the top ranking players in each games, and concerts featuring Konami's in house musicians have been held to great response from fans. The series also remains largely popular in Korea and other asian territories thanks to the recent release of jubeat, and the inclusion of e-amusement for score tracking, song unlocks, and other exclusive features.
Konami celebrated the franchise's 10th anniversary in 2007 with a series of concerts, a nationwide tournament, new releases for all of it's key franchises and a 5 disc CD collection of the most popular songs from every game. Since that time they have introduced 4 new titles to Japanese arcades; jubeat, Reflec Beat, Sound Voltex Booth, and Dance Evolution. Starting in 2011 they also began utilizing the internet capabilities of their games in new ways, including additional DLC, unlock systems that span games (IE unlock songs on IIDX via playing jubeat), and even challenges requiring players to visit arcades in different prefectures. Now in the series' 15th anniversary Konami is updating each of it's key franchises to the HD standard, and adding even more user connectivity in the way of contests to include player made remixes as DLC for its games.
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