Capcom have plans to begin distributing arcade music games in Japan and other Asian territories, the company announced this week. The first title they release will be Rayark’s Cytus Ω, to which they have acquired the rights.
“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,” Capcom said in a statement. “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 picked Cytus as their first arcade port for a reason—the game has been downloaded 6 million times on smartphones worldwide. Capcom will start by releasing the game in Japanese arcades and will then work on getting it to China and Southeast Asia, alongside another game called Crossbeats REV, which is also based on a smartphone title named Cross x Beats.
“By linking these two new arcade games with smartphone apps, Capcom will target a broad spectrum of users,” the company said.