Capcom released a statement on February 16 that detailed their plans to take a stronger focus on music and rhythm games in the Asian market, beginning with Cytus Omega and crossbeat REV.
Their two first forays into this genre are based on globally popular smartphone apps, and Capcom plan to continue gaining rights to popular smartphone apps, building upon and consolidating that popularity with an arcade version release. So far these plans are only for China and larger Asian market.
The statement is as follows:
"Capcom Co., Ltd. (Capcom) today announced that it start distributing in 2015 music games for arcades beginning with "CYTUS Ω（Omega）" and "crossbeats REV.". After launching "CYTUS Ω" in Japan, Capcom plans to begin distributing this game in China and Southeast Asia, where the music game category is very popular.
Annual revenues in Japan's music game market are estimated to be about 15 billion yen and 2013 revenue was 129% higher than in 2012. This growing market is popular among men and women of all ages. Frequent and casual players alike are attracted by captivating exterior designs as well as the intuitive playing characteristics of these games. In recent years, the music game market has been invigorated even more by the use of networks that link games with social networking services.
Capcom has acquired exclusive rights to "Cytus", a rhythm game app by Rayark Inc. of Taiwan for smartphones that has more than 6 million downloads worldwide. Capcom will start distributing this game to arcades in Japan as "CYTUS Ω". The original title uses a worldview with the near-future as its theme. Capcom plans to use a wide touch screen panel and audio system that produces powerful, stereophonic sound, both of which are possible only with the large size of arcade game units. These features will give music game fans an entirely new experience. Furthermore, Capcom plans to use "Cross x Beats", a music game app currently distributed for smartphones (iOS), to create an arcade game called "crossbeats REV." that will be introduced in 2015.
By linking these two new arcade games with smartphone apps, Capcom will target a broad spectrum of users. In addition, Capcom plans to continue growing in this market sector by introducing more music games.
Capcom remains firmly committed to satisfying the expectations of all users by making the most of its industry-leading game development capabilities in order to create games that are full of originality."
News via: Capcom
