Good call. I’ve definitely been impatient, haha. I didn’t even think about how it’s not out in Japan… and I imagine KI is not exactly popular over there. I’m also just excited to have more arcade sticks!
its not just KI, its the Xbox itself that isn’t popular in Japan.
Going back and checking the history of joystick releases on the PS3, it does seem like the pace is about the same now for the XBox One and PS4 at this point in their history. I think the expectation for a lot of us was that there would be more fighting games available at this point for the next-gen consoles than there really is… but then again, last generation was NOT normal game-cycle business and that generation did get extended quite a bit past the 4-6 year cycles people are familiar with.
I think on the PS3, the first major pro-stick release was the Sega Virtua Stick High Grade. This was Japan-only; it never officially appeared outside of Asia except through importers and web-sales. Seems to have been very limited production like most Sega hardware is now.
That was released in early February 2007 just months after the PS3 debuted the previous year. Sales on the VHSG actually stopped at one point when a defect was discovered in the original production PCB; sales resumed with a corrected PCB shortly afterwards the same year. This is all on the web and it took me all of a few seconds to find out about the original release date. (I know a FAQ in Japanese with major joystick listings since at least the early 1990s but I couldn’t find it… I’m going by the Play-Asia listing which are generally accurate.)
As for the HRAP 3 (JLF, Hori OEM buttons), the original Japanese release was close to the Sega VSHG. According to the Play-Asia listing, the original release was in February 2007. Amazon.com has a release date of December 2008 but I’m presuming that the date there refers to the official American release.
The HRAP 3 SA (American release; Japanese debut may have been earlier but I can’t find it online) and HRAP 3 SE (Japan-only) debuted Fall 2009.
I seem to recall that HRAP 3 SA had an earlier planned release but that got scuttled and rescheduled… The buttons may have been a different color in the earlier HRAP 3 SA prototype mock-up (red color scheme versus white in the actual production joystick). It was the case that the Sega VSHG prototype was seen with pink 30mm buttons before the production model switched to 30mm grey and smaller yellow buttons.
The real joystick explosion for PS3/XBox 3 was definitely after SF IV released in Spring 2009. That was the debut for Mad Catz as a pro-level joystick manufacturer with the Mad Catz TE Rd 1 models and upgradeable SE joystick…
You’re on the money with the timing. Beyond Injustice PS4 port, there’s not enough out there for anyone to really justify a joystick purchase for the newgen consoles. KI for xbone aside as well. Once a SF game plus the latest Soul Cal, Tekken, VF, and even DoA games come out, there will be a need for newer joysticks.
I predict it’ll really only take maybe two major game debuts with VERY good pre-orders for non-LE, non-Amazon-jp exclusive stick releases to pop up regularly on the PS4 and XBox One. The question now is which games will really do that and WHEN. It’ll happen within the next two years unless the game industry gets hit by reality and finally affected by the economy but so far ‘virtual reality’ has avoided the reality check that’s affected most everything else.
The only problem is that no one can with absolute certainty that the next SF IV, Tekken or Soul Calibur games will be huge hits. The sales on most of the games series xpulse listed were fairly soft on PS3 and XBox 360 compared to what they were on the PS2. VF is such a non-entity outside of Japan – it’s virtually dead in the West – that it shouldn’t be listed as a big stick seller.
I honestly don’t know how well DoA 5 did but the series in general was gone from many people’s radar screens while it was an XBox/MS exclusive. Personally, I gave up on it after DoA 2 was released and the game became more of a jiggle-fest as opposed to a worthy VF alternative that was easier to pick up and play. I have fond memories of DoA 1 but that game was only really good on the Saturn-jp release and the Ultimate DOA collection on the original XBox.
I have my doubts about sales prospects on yet another SF IV upgrade. I remember how quickly people got tired of that minor tweaking business in the 1990s on the SF2 series and how poor cartridge sales nearly killed Capcom back then. The good news about an SF IV update is that SF IV has a developed game engine and Capcom’s reusing 5-year-old CG models for the most part. Also, the media manufacturing costs (unless anti-copy on BD is that bad) and digital release aren’t going to kill Capcom like the cart format nearly did. I doubt putting in new characters or modifying existing ones is anywhere near as expensive as developing the original SF IV was. That’s a good point and bad point in Capcom’s favor-- low development costs and lower risks if sales don’t meet expectations but a definite sore point for people who want SF V. SF V is just not going to happen any time soon…
The only thing I’d say with certainty on joysticks is my belief that Hori’s going to discontinue doing Sanwa and Seimitsu editions of the HRAP’s… The HRAP SE discontinuance is a near-given since there were never huge production runs on those to begin with and last generation Seimitsu-equipped HRAP’s were mainly on the XBox 360 which was a non-factor in Japan. My belief is that the HRAP SA’s are gone this next generation, too, with the Hayabusa and Kuro migrating to HRAP V3 and V4 releases this past year. There’s just no reason for Hori to continue equipping the HRAP’s with Sanwa parts when the Fighting Edge parts are just as good. If people don’t like the Hayabusa and Kuro so much, they can always re-equip with Sanwa or Seimitsu parts like people have already been doing on past HRAP and Mad Catz joystick releases. I would predict that’s going to be rarer than the swapouts of JLF’s for alternative joysticks were in past HRAP/MC TE releases were…
You guys are on the nose, I think. I was impatient before, but I didn’t stop to think about the situation – there really aren’t any games coming to the new machines that’d push stick sales even if they were available. Maybe if a SF V hits… and a few others…
Considering that there were 12 years between SF3 and SF4, I don’t think we’re going to see SF5 anytime soon.
Capcom’s not done milking SF4 yet and I wouldn’t expect SF5 to be a great technical improvement over SF4 if they did it now. There just doesn’t seem to be a point, really.
We’ll see.
I don’t think things will heat up until next year.
If anybody really wants a PS4 joystick, there are pretty much only two declared/semi-declared joysticks. One is the HRAP V4 that’s an Amazon-jp exclusive but you can maybe still pre-order it… The other is the rumored/hinted-at joystick for the Guilty Gear release later this year on PS4. The situation’s really not any better on the XB1.
Other than that, there’s the pad-hacking route which is still expensive. I don’t think there are any cheaper reliable third-party PCB’s on market. You’re stuck with Sony, MS, or Hori at this point.
who said this, who is making it.
at this point, arc sys has very close ties with both sanwa and exar. if anything, the exar/sanwa team-up will be making this guilty gear stick. at least in japan.
I thought a Mad Catz or a Hori rep mentioned something about another joystick release later this year that was a planned PS4 release.
I dunno… maybe I read that wrong. Seems likely that there will be some kind of mass-release PS4 joystick in the next year.
There are the Amazon-jp joysticks but those really don’t count in the bigger scheme of things. It’d be nice to have a confirmed release joystick that’s priced in the $130-$150 range that you don’t have to import and can actually get States-side without paying $60 for shipping.
Hori and Mad Catz did BlazBlu joystick releases in the past, btw. Mad Catz did a TE stick for the first BlazBlu game and Hori did two releases – the first was an HRAP 3 licensed variant (soldered PCB buttons); the second BlazBlu joystick was an HRAP V3/VX release branded for BlazBlu Continuum Shift.
What I thought I had read was a stick tie-in for the new next-generation console Guilty Gear release later this year. I admit I could be wrong. There’s still a lot about game releases months from now that are still more rumors than nailed-down fact. There’s information just released about SFIV that seems more rumor than fact… I don’t think it’s been established that SFIV will be strictly ‘just PS3/XBox 360’ at this point… That’s something there that could really affect stick sales unless SFIV stays strictly on PS3/360 OR most people just pass on the SFIV update.
My Hori Real Arcade Pro 2 (PS2)
https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/t1.0-9/19479_311261232398_472968_n.jpg
https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfa1/t1.0-9/25697_363778237398_1705679_n.jpg
My 3 Hori Fighting Sticks (Wii, XBOX 360, PS3)
My Tekken 5 HRAP Stick
https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/t1.0-9/66546_445046392398_2504856_n.jpg
Tekken 5 Now Custom PCB with Games (PS2,PS3,PC)
https://scontent-a-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xaf1/t1.0-9/390644_10150470188812399_1967486416_n.jpg
Last but not least, Me Holding my Stick next to Justin Wong.
For my sweetheart~ She loves it, I love it. My first project mod, I’m very happy! ^^
Because I did a write up for the [Hayabusa](HayabuSilent? Silentbusa? Hayabusa Optical Mod, ahoy! and basically my Fighting Edge, might as well pimp it here:
My Hori “Silent” Edge:
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First six = GamerFinger HBSF-30, last two = stock Kuro. If you’re wondering why I went with the MS color scheme and moved the buttons to match controller scheme vs arcade, it’s about 100x easier to tell someone not familiar with fighters or even games in general to hit the “green” button instead of the “A” button, etc. To me, they’re just buttons to hit. 