2006

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BEMANI Timeline
1997 - 1998 - 1999
2000 - 2001 - 2002 - 2003 - 2004 - 2005 - 2006 - 2007 - 2008 - 2009
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2020 - 2021 - 2022 - 2023 - 2024

2006

After three and a half years of (mostly) hibernation from the arcades, the DanceDanceRevolution series returned to the arcades in 2006 with DanceDanceRevolution SuperNOVA. In an interesting move, SuperNOVA was released in other countries before its Japanese release. SuperNOVA also ended KONAMI's eight year relationship with TOSHIBA-EMI; the Japanese SuperNOVA marked the last time the series would advertise Dancemania albums. SuperNOVA contained a whopping 120 songs added to the series, though the grand majority came from the CS releases. It was also the first arcade game released worldwide, which would stay the standard for the next two arcade releases as well. Though criticism was aimed towards timing issues and the lack of e-AMUSEMENT support outside of Asia, both of these were rectified later with patch disks.

North America got two CS DanceDanceRevolution games that year. The first, DanceDanceRevolution SuperNOVA CS (North America), was a loose part of the arcade game, containing most of its original songs but missing a lot of BEMANI crossovers. (Also, five songs are only playable online, which made them inaccessible when the online for the game went down the following year.) The other, DanceDanceRevolution ULTRAMIX4, was the final Xbox DanceDanceRevolution title. It was sold at a reduced price of only $30, and contained a feature called V-Edit mode, where you can script background sequences in a similar manner to how you write steps in Edit Mode, and Power mode, where you play a megamix consisting of multiple songs. The series would move on to the Xbox 360 the following year.

Europe received two console games as well. The first, Dancing Stage Unleashed3, was more or less a port of DanceDanceRevolution ULTRAMIX3 aside from the usual swapping out of licenses for more European-appealing ones. The other was Dancing Stage SuperNOVA CS, more or less a port of the North American PS2 releases, but with the online songs playable offline and more license swapping.

beatmania IIDX continued to move forward with beatmania IIDX 13 DistorteD. DistorteD introduced a new EXTRA STAGE system in place of the old one, which now expanded the total number of extra stage songs from one to four. This system would eventually go on to become the standard for the years to come. DistorteD also added a new course to Dani'nintei Mode, known as Kaiden (皆伝). Kaiden consists of the some of the toughest songs the IIDX series has to offer. As such, it has become somewhat of a status symbol among the community and a wall that many players aim to overcome.

Home ports of IIDX RED and HAPPY SKY came out in May and December respectively of that year. IIDX RED CS was notable for changing a lot of additions to the CS series: score graphs, the ability to save ghost data from other PS2 memory cards, in-song hi-speed changes, and customizable UI/skins/note splashes. HAPPY SKY CS further continued the customization trend by allowing you to change the music select BGM and added even more skins, including a pop'n music-themed one.

KONAMI also announced the formation of a new, beatmania IIDX-focused label called beatnation Records that year. Its members consisted of only in-house staff at the time; two long-running contributors to BEMANI and, to balance it out, two of its freshest newcomers. Most of the releases published under the label involved beatmania IIDX in some way, shape, or form, from soundtracks, to full-fledged albums, to even artbooks. The beatnation Records label would be active for a few years before going on temporary hiatus.

2006 also saw the first and only CS beatmania IIDX release outside of Asia with beatmania (2006) (sometimes called beatmania US to differentiate it from the original 1997 series). Made with a North American audience in mind, it tried to combine beatmania and beatmania IIDX songs together, but was criticized by those not familiar with the series as too difficult to get into, and by veterans as too limited and not containing enough songs or features. No sequels or follow-ups were ever made.

In addition to DanceDanceRevolution returning to arcades, GuitarFreaks & DrumMania saw itself return to the PlayStation 2 for the first time since 2001 with three console games; GuitarFreaks V & DrumMania V CS and GuitarFreaks V2 & DrumMania V2 CS both came out that year. In-between them came GuitarFreaks & DrumMania MASTERPIECE SILVER, a "best hits" game containing various songs between GUITARFREAKS 5thMIX & drummania 4thMIX through GUITARFREAKS 11thMIX & drummania 10thMIX, the songs chosen by surveys from fans.

pop'n music continued along, with pop'n music 14 FEVER! introducing a more expanded NET対戦モード (NET Taisen Mode). With the end of ee'MALL a couple of weeks before the game's launch, all of the songs from the first game were made available by default. Console gamers were greeted with home ports of pop'n music 12 いろは and pop'n music 13 カーニバル in March and September of that year.

January

February

  • February 1st: pop'n music 13 カーニバル AC ♥ CS pop'n music 11 original soundtrack released.
  • February 15th: DDR FESTIVAL & Dance Dance Revolution STR!KE ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK released.
  • February 16th: DanceDanceRevolution STR!KE is released in Japan for the PlayStation 2.

March

April

  • April 19th: GuitarFreaksV2 & DrumManiaV2 SoundTracks released.
  • April 28th: Dancing Stage SuperNOVA is released to European arcades.
    • First BEMANI project worked on by Yasuhiro Taguchi as a staff member, who did some charts for the game.

May

June

July

August

September

  • September 13th: GuitarFreaks V3 & DrumMania V3 are released to Japanese arcades.
    • Yasuhiro Taguchi starts writing music for BEMANI beginning with this game.
  • September 15th: Takeo Miratsu (Twin AmadeuS) passes away due to liver cancer.
  • September 16th: Dance Revolution, a live-action children's TV series very loosely based on the DanceDanceRevolution series, premieres in the United States on CBS' KOL Secret Slumber Party Saturday morning block. The show, co-produced by Brookwell McNamara Entertainment, DiC Entertainment, KOL/AOL for Kids, and KONAMI Digital Entertainment, Inc., ran for 26 episodes and one season.
  • September 26th: DanceDanceRevolution SuperNOVA CS (North America) is released in North America for the PlayStation 2.
  • September 28th: pop'n music 13 カーニバル CS is released in Japan for the PlayStation 2.

October

  • October 23rd: KONAMI acquires the intellectual property rights to in the groove as part of the court settlement with Roxor Games Inc. A full detailing of this can be read here and here.
  • October 27th:
    • ee'MALL & ee'MALL 2nd avenue SOUND TRACKS released.
    • pop'n music 14 FEVER! AC ♡ CS pop'n music 12 いろは & 13 カーニバル original soundtrack released.

November

December

Unknown date

  • After over seven years of partnership, KONAMI cuts off its ties with TOSHIBA-EMI. DanceDanceRevolution SuperNOVA would be the last game featuring the two companies working together, and KONAMI would start from SuperNOVA onwards distribute soundtracks for the series themselves, free of any licenses. Dancemania licenses would still continue to appear/revived in the arcades, however, for another decade, until all non-DanceDanceRevolution original Dancemania licenses were removed from DanceDanceRevolution A on May 30th, 2016.
  • BeForU signs onto avex mode, permanently ending BeForU singers Riyu Kosaka, Noria Shiraishi, Nao Komatsu, Sayaka Minami, Miharu Arisawa, and Risa Sotohana's ties with KONAMI. The group would continue to appear as a licensed group for the next year.
  • Hiroyuki Togo, the BEMANI series' first ever CS sound director, and a composer for KONAMI for nearly a decade, leaves the company.