The Story So Far:

• The current arcade release of pop’n music comes in the form of pop’n music 17 THE MOVIE. The current console release is that of pop’n music 14 FEVER!, which was released two years ago. Usually, the timeframe inbetween console releases is a year (in which case the console version of pop’n music 16 PARTY♪ should’ve come out by now).
• About half a year ago, Konami attempted a downloadable web release with Beat’n Groovy, for the XBox Live Arcade. It failed horribly with both Western and Japanese audiences.
• Konami, not too far back, released an enquete about home versions of pop’n. This fueled speculation that a new version of pop’n might come – perhaps they would find a way to toss pop’n 15 and 16 onto a PS3 disc, and make it work with existing peripherals (PlayStation pop’n controllers that mimic the arcade are at least $200!)
• This month’s Famitsu has a little corner that denotes pop’n coming to the Wii, along with a screenshot of Mimi, falling pop-kuns, five buttons, and Miis, wrapped up in a rather shiny, not-really-pop’n interface. Text below the screenshot suggests that you shake the Wii Remote and Nunchuk in time with the music, and confirms multiplayer play.
• Said Famitsu issue also has a thing in the back denoting a release date for said pop’n game – August 6.
• Prior to that, Konami registered for a United States trademark on pop’n music on May 20, which covered “game software” alongside “cell phone program”.

Now, in the ever-continuing saga for the next console version of pop’n music, Konami, today, released a information page for the upcoming release of pop’n Wii that confirms the relatively radical makeover. Along with what we already know, it also denotes online connectivity, and downloadable content (through the red Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection Pay to Play emblem on the boxart).

There are plenty of people in the English pop’n music fanbase who are alienated by this decision to move to a next-gen console with half of the actual gameplay of the arcade version. Unfortunately, to Konami, the only people who play pop’n music are Japanese; other countries aren’t supposed to be able to import it in any flavor. It’s actually a pretty smart decision by them to keep people coming to the arcades to increase revenue, as opposed to releasing console releases in order for them to die out faster.

It might be part of the reason why arcades haven’t died in Japan: because you can’t replicate the modern Japanese arcade experience anyhow else.