The unified Game Center cards in Japan

During my stay in Japan earlier this March, after taking my first bowl of Ramen, I went to a nearby Game Center in Akihabara, Taito Station. When I was looking for my e-amusement card, I just remembered that KONAMI released a new itineration of their e-amusement card. So I looked for the kiosk that dispensed e-amusement cards.

The new e-amusement card design

The new KONAMI e-amusement card is now a unified with other gaming companies such as SEGA's AIME Card, BANDAI NAMCO's BANAPASSPORT and Taito's NESiCA LIVE. Which means you can use one card to other games such as MaiMai or Taiko Tatsujin, etc. Game Cards sold by three gaming companies will have an AMUSEMENT IC logo within. KONAMI released a press release to the new implementation. Bought the e-amusement card for only 300 JPY (400 JPY as of Dec 2019).

e-amusement card dispenser and the PASELI loading kiosk in Taito Station Akihabara

The old Game Cards issued by each companies is still usable though but they can't be crossover. I haven't tried to use the Amusement IC cards in Banapassport enabled games such as Maximum Tune (Old cabinet might be using the old RF readers).

UPDATE: 11 January 2020

As of January 2020, SEGA's maimai DX will be officially connected to SEGA's ALL.NET network in the Philippines, and equipped with Amusement IC readers. It means that e-AMUSEMENT, BANAPASSPORT, and ALL.NET are available in PH!

maimai DX arcade machine at Q Power Station in Makati