Audition Online (), also known as X-BEAT in Japan and popularly called AyoDance in Indonesia, is a free-to-play multiplayer online casual rhythm game produced by T3 Entertainment. It was originally released in South Korea in 2004 and has been localized by various publishers around the world. Audition Online is free to play, but earns revenue by selling virtual items such as clothes for the player's avatar.
History
Audition Online was developed by T3 Entertainment and was released to Korean publisher 'Royworld' during July 2005. During June 2006, YeDang Online took Audition Online and named it Club Audition. The game also saw its first release outside of Korea in 2006 in the South-East Asian region, the Japanese region under the name Dancing Paradise and the Vietnamese region. In 2007, major publisher Nexon localised the game for the American audience. The game was then also localised for the UK and European audience where publishers 'Alaplaya' and 'G4' had an agreement to have a joint server. In June 2008, Audition saw the first release of the Season 2 update where the new game mode "Beat Rush" was added, updated graphics and adjusting the aspect ratio to 1024x768.
Nexon, in 2009, decided to not renew its contract with T3 Entertainment in order to operate Audition Online, thus having the Japanese and American servers shut down. In order to resolve this issue, T3 Entertainment subsidiaries Redbana and Hanbitstation published the game. American players could migrate their accounts and characters from Nexon over to Redbana.
On 30 September 2015, T3 Entertainment did not allow YD Online to renew its contract. This decision was made in order to allow T3's subsidiary HanbitSoft the ability to publish Audition Online. YD Online held the databases to Audition in South Korea, however, which prompted a server wipe. HanbitSoft, however, rewarded players with free CASH, cheaper CASH shop items, an exclusive indefinite outfit and more frequent updates. On 1 October, HanbitSoft was officially the publisher of Audition Online and Hanbiton was the official publisher of Audition in Korea.
Gameplay
A player is allowed to create a room or join a room. The "DJ" (the player who creates the room) is given power to choose the settings for the room: song, "chance," and game mode. The song's BPM (beats per minute) usually will determine the song's difficulty and speed (with certain exceptions e.g. beat up mode). While the "DJ" has the power to kick people out of the room and close the dance floor off, this generally has no benefit. After all, the most appealing part of the game is its social aspect: playing alongside others whether for fun or competition.
The basic game is played by pressing the arrows displayed on the screen (with the exception of red "chance" arrows) and pressing the spacebar or the control key on every 4th beat of the song. The more accurately the spacebar or control key is pressed, the higher the score. A grade of "PERFECT" will provide players with the greatest score, a grade of "GREAT" and "COOL" will provide players with decent scores, a grade of "BAD" will provide players with very little score, and for "MISS" will provide players with no score for the turn. A player who receives a "MISS" will not get the chance to play for the next move.
The "Finish Move," a special move during most gameplay modes, can be said to be the hardest move. A player who does not miss the move before the "Finish Move" has the option to do it. Finish moves issue a lot of points and can often be the key to success.
A player who does two or more PERFECTs consecutively gets bonus points for doing so. These PERFECT combos (or "Perfect chains") enable players to interfere with the opposition. A blue circle indicates that the player made a PERFECT move and acts as a shield. When a player performs a PERFECT X1 (or perfect X2 in some cases), the players ahead of and behind him or her in score standings receive a yellow circle. Players with the yellow circle will not receive points if they do not achieve a PERFECT (in a Finish Move, it reduces score by a percentage rather than the whole score).
Players can increase their score by playing "chance." "Chance" can be activated by pressing the delete key or the "." key on the number pad whereby red keys appear and players have to press in the opposite direction of the red keys.
At the end of the dance battle, the person with the most points is the winner. That player's character is presented at the front of the stage. Each player will receive experience points and Den/BEATS according to their finishing positions.