Famitsu published an interview with Tanita’s Business Planning Department Representative Akiko Kubo. Tanita is the manufacturer of the new PlayStation 4 compatible Twin Stick controllers made for Virtual On games. These Twin Sticks controllers were funded via crowdfunding.
In the interview, Akiko Kubo mentioned that the development of the Twin Sticks is currently at around 30%, and how Tanita is still adjusting the final button layout and the interior parts’ design. If everything goes smoothly, Tanita is planning to commercialize the PS4 Twin Sticks in November 2019. While Tanita and Sega are completely independent of each other, we can easily deduce with this that the PS4 ports of the three Virtual-On games will be released by Sega before the end of November, as Tanita releasing the Twin Sticks while the games to play them with aren’t out yet would be nonsensical. The announcement of the Virtual On PS4 ports is the sole reason why the crowdfunding was a massive success too.
Here are more tidbits from the interview:
Seeing the Twin Sticks are scheduled for November, Akiko Kubo mentioned that Tanita might make an appearance at Tokyo Game Show 2019 in September to showcase them. If so, I think it’s highly likely that Sega will reveal the release date of the PS4 Virtual On ports at the same time, if they weren’t already released by then.
Tanita’s staff meets from 2 to 3 times a month with Virtual On Series Producer Juro Watari to discuss the Twin Sticks’ development. They’re basically considering how to add new buttons to the Twin Sticks while not making the design that different from the 1995 original arcade ones so old-time fans don’t get confused. They’re carefully considering the size and weight as well.
Tanita will also commercialize spare parts for the Twin Sticks, and they’re considering selling parts to game centers with Virtual On games. With that said, they’re developing the Twin Sticks in a way so they’ll last decades long, with very high durability.
In related news, Sega didn’t comment yet on when sales for A Certain Magical Virtual On will resume. Players who already own the game digitally can still redownload it, and the online servers are still operational, meaning it should definitely come back soon. It’s highly possible the game will restart being commercialized along with the Twin Sticks in November.
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