Round1 Starts Arcade Playtest Run of Project DIVA

Round1 on its official Facebook page has announced the start of a playtest run of Project DIVA Arcade machines at their Puente Hills location after many photos of the machines had started popping up on social networks. This confirms previous rumors of the presence of these arcade cabinets at Round1, although instead of being permanent parts of the arcade, these cabinets will simply be part of a playtest run designed to gather feedback for use in the consideration of future deployments. It appears that each play will be for four credits each, and the playtest will be held between 12:00PM February 14 and 2:00AM March 18. Furthermore, Round1 will give out one IC card to each player who fills out a survey. This is the first time a proper playtest is being held in the US for Project DIVA. Such playtests have been held before in Hong Kong (early Sept. 2010), Singapore (late Sept. 2010) and Taiwan (late Oct. 2010) a few months before permanent deployment of these arcade machines in those countries (early Jan./late Feb. 2011). Should Project DIVA Arcade launch in the US officially, it would give fans an alternative to importing the console version of the game, although gameplay is slightly different between the two.


9 thoughts on “Round1 Starts Arcade Playtest Run of Project DIVA”

  1. The question I have is how much does one credit equal in terms of USD? At the moment I’m going off brunswick zone conversion where 1 credit = $1 USD. If that is how it is at Round 1 then it would be 4 dollars a play which seems like a rip. However if it is 1 credit = .25 USD then it would only be a buck to play which is pretty good deal. (Though my gut is telling me it will be a middle number probably like 1credit = .50 USD) Still it is interesting that Round 1 is willing to take such a big risk but seeing that they are international company I guess they might have some people who are more experienced with setting up and localizing foreign games.

    1. Generally credits in the US are equivalent to quarters, so it should be around $1. However, I’ve heard that Round1 has some point card system where you can get a better deal if you buy credits in bulk.

      1. Yeah Round 1 goes of a point system where $1=4 credits and if you buy say $10 or $20 etc… you get bonus credits.

      1. So far it looks like the machines are doing really well. All 200 diva cards have been given out in less then 4 days. I went there for about half a day on the 2nd day of release and there was always a line which sometimes even went to 10+ ppl waiting.

  2. Had a chance to play Project Diva Arcade Version B at Round 1 in Puente Hills Mall (40 minute drive from where I live). Awesome to scale up from playing the PSP and PS Vita versions. They have 2 machines there so you have to wait in line to play but totally worth it. I’m hoping for a more widespread deployment to other arcades in US so more Vocaloid fans can enjoy it. The arcade game is all in Japanese by the way so it’s helpful to know a little Japanese (at least some hiragana and katakana).

  3. I hope it’s not taboo to resurrect an old thread but I want to let everyone know that the Puente Hills Round 1 now has three Project Diva Future Tones.

    Not to be outdone the Lakewood Round 1 has five Future Tones. I am not sure if the Moreno Valley Round 1 has PD as I don’t go to that one very often.

    Ever since Technika has died R1 has removed those machines at Puente Hills and Lakewood (presumably Moreno Valley too) and replaced them with PD hoping this game will fill that gap.

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