Just got back from my trip to California. Visited AI a few times to play Empress. It is a most excellent style and hopefully there will be a CS version.
If Konami is forced to halt CS versions due to transitioning to PS3 then people are either going to go back to old styles on PS2 (lame), pirate the HDD, or head to arcades to play the newest version (most pro-option). Personally I hate to try and play the hard drives on PC since it's mostly a crap-shoot and would rather play on an actual machine.
If there is anything holding PZ back from getting a machine that the community could help with? Considering that there is no bemani destination in the Southern US and TGA is shutting its doors, would it be possible to raise money towards purchasing their machines? Of course there is no guarantee of the quality of the machines at this point since the flood might have damaged a few.
Empress is FAAAAAAAR from trash. It's got a lot of good stuff, especially if the machine is set to Beat:Free. C'mon it's got Jack, you'd just play that all day anyway =)
If they kept IIDX pink, and just updated the music I'd still play the hell out of it.
So is Planet Zero planning on getting a beatmania cabinet or not? It would be an amazingly beneficial purchase for them to get an IIDX cabinet. It would be unbelievably awesome