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If I am correctly understanding the translation of today's column, Hori will be releasing Twin Sticks in November, at a price of ¥30,000 (US $306.52 at today's rate). The article goes on to state that Hori has not made their official announcement, so details may change.

Holy crap. Imagine what the price would be after shipping to the US.

And I thought the Hori Death Smiles stick was expensive!

EDIT: But still, I have to give them credit for making them at all.

ZOMG!! IT'S TEH MEGATUNZ!!

300 bucks?!? These fools ain't playing around!



Well, time to start saving!

No way I'm going to be crazy enough to throw away 300 dollars just for a pair of twin-sticks. Simply not gonna happen.

For the sake of comparison, the Sega Saturn Twin Sticks, model HSS-0154, were ¥5,800 in 1996:
http://sega.jp/archive/segahard/ss/twin.html

The DC Twin Sticks, model HKT-7500, were ¥5,800 in 1999:
http://sega.jp/dc/hard/co_twin/

What about inflation over the last 10 years, you ask? Well, Japan has actually had near zero inflation and even deflation over most of the last decade, so the price increase is not explained by inflation.

Maybe they're going to be produced in ultra-limited numbers?

This blog gives a pretty good breakdown about the updated twin stick announcement:

http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2009/0 ... in_sticks/

according to the blogger, the twin sticks will only be available by pre-order and furthermore - production will only begin if a certain number of pre-orders are reached

no news yet on what that number would be

MentholMoose wrote:For the sake of comparison, the Sega Saturn Twin Sticks, model HSS-0154, were ¥5,800 in 1996:
http://sega.jp/archive/segahard/ss/twin.html

The DC Twin Sticks, model HKT-7500, were ¥5,800 in 1999:
http://sega.jp/dc/hard/co_twin/

What about inflation over the last 10 years, you ask? Well, Japan has actually had near zero inflation and even deflation over most of the last decade, so the price increase is not explained by inflation.

I think it is because they expect this to be so niche a product. I mean, VO fever is not what it once was, and I'm sure they are not initially gonna mass produce a huge quantity (as evidenced by the pre-order bit in the article, which I called BTW ), so that might explain the huge markup.

That, or they are going to go ballz out and make arcade panels.

....oh wait....that *could* be possible....

wraith88 wrote:This blog gives a pretty good breakdown about the updated twin stick announcement:

http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2009/0 ... in_sticks/

according to the blogger, the twin sticks will only be available by pre-order and furthermore - production will only begin if a certain number of pre-orders are reached

no news yet on what that number would be

So it'll be ultra-limited, like I thought.

Oh well, guess I'll just be happy they're fixing turning in the upcoming title update.

Knoxximus wrote:That, or they are going to go ballz out and make arcade panels.

Since it's apparently pre-order only, it's feasible that they will be using off-the-shelf parts, possibly the Sanwa JLJ-PL2-8V:
http://www.sanwa-d.co.jp/p_joy-stick4.htm

$300 is too much... only a few hard core players will buy it. I rather see something similar to DC Twin Sticks, for a reasonable price, to make it more accessible to the general audience.

Dang... that's pricey. Is this going to be the most expensive stick Hori has ever made?

OK custom mod time!

I might still pre-order tho. I'm a sucker for these types of things...

graefocs wrote:Dang... that's pricey. Is this going to be the most expensive stick Hori has ever made?

OK custom mod time!

I might still pre-order tho. I'm a sucker for these types of things...

Me too...and a huge one at that.

Will they even allow preorders outside of Japan?

If it would have taken until November to release them, regardless of if they are $300 in small quantity or $70 in huge quantity, probably taking preorders IS the smart way to go if they aren't sure how lasting the audience for the game really is, if people will keep up with it or not. I don't know if I want to pay $300 for Twinsticks when the game's playerbase may have changed dramatically by the time I can finally use it.

It's depressing that even after "exceeding" their expectations with download sales, Sega still apparently has so little faith in the game's potential.

Does anyone know how Xbox Live revenue is split? I just renewed my subscription and I wonder if Sega sees any of that money (and if they know what games I'm playing) or if it just all goes to Microsoft.

I'm sure the specialty stores (Play Asia, NCSX, etc) will pick up the slack.

Wonder if they are gonna pack in the game with it.

Oh, and to answer the question, subscription money goes to MS and MS alone...I think they use the bulk of it for infrastructure maintinence. So no profit sharing. Sega gets their money from VOOT sales only.

Mark-up via Play Asia and other importers would probably raise the final price even further. It might be worthwhile to place a group order through some kind of courier service (like Akibado) instead.

For those of you willing to spring on this, anyway. Too rich for my blood.

Are modded twin sticks still going for like $250 on YAJ? If so, a $300 price tag for new sticks (as opposed to $250 for ones that are 10 years old) only seems moderately crazy, not super crazy.

On the one hand, I can see charging a lot. The number of potential customers is very low, so they have to have good profit margins to make it worthwhile. Luckily, a good chunk of the fan base is enthusiastic enough to pay a premium for it (as indicated by sales on YAJ). OTOH, many of the people who really want twin sticks have already bought or made modded twin sticks (or will have by November). That price tag might scare people who were on the fence, like me.

Personally, I was waiting for this announcement to see what I wanted to do with my sticks. I have a Saturn pair and a DC pair but zero skills in electronics. I was going to pay a guy I met through another forum to mod a set for me, but I was waiting to see if official sticks would come out and for how much. At $300 (plus at least $50 shipping, right?), modding seems to be the way to go. It would be nice to vote with my wallet and show some VO love (maybe show Sega there's money to be made in a good VO sequel).

Either way, I want to see what Hori says in their official announcement.

Knoxximus wrote: Oh, and to answer the question, subscription money goes to MS and MS alone...I think they use the bulk of it for infrastructure maintinence. So no profit sharing. Sega gets their money from VOOT sales only.

Knoxximus,
Are you in the game industry? Just curious...

graefocs wrote:

Knoxximus wrote: Oh, and to answer the question, subscription money goes to MS and MS alone...I think they use the bulk of it for infrastructure maintinence. So no profit sharing. Sega gets their money from VOOT sales only.

Knoxximus,
Are you in the game industry? Just curious...

I was affiliated for a little while...did some music production for Midway a few years back. That got me into 3 E3's (2001, 2005, 2006), which was a dream that came true 3 times.

Now I'm just getting ready for nursing school this fall, but I still have a few connects in the industry.

HOLY AJIM!!!

Not a smart move for SEGA, not smart at all....

The re-release of VOOT at a cheaper price, on a more widely avalable console, gives a wider audiance a chance to play the game...giveing the games primary periphial such an outlandish price point and a limited release can easily counter that, and turn people away from picking up the game at all...

We'll see what HORI says, but...geez...

I'll probrably still try and get one anyway, but my doubts are high, on a personal level anyway.

$300 is a bit rich for a controller that can only be used with one game, unless Sega are planning some sort of sequel, which would be cool. Hori aren't really renowned for making top-of-the-line gear, they have a few shockers on the market but overall I guess they are better than Madcatz in general. I guess it just depends on what parts they are planning on using.

If these are ultra limited like everyone seems to think they're going to be, just imagine how much they'll be worth a few years down the track?

I do hope the price is wrong somehow, would be nice to have another set. (to go with my other three ), but at the current price, I might give it a miss.