Japan and the USA are very different markets for games. Japan has a bigger diametric shift between purchasers. You have the huge RPG gamers that will line up and wait for games, or just won't go at all. That's why you see games either fitting into only 2 catagories: Non-Games and Games, lol. I believe that the retail structure in the US allows for the games to be sold at a more diverse amount of locations, allowing for sales of certain games to continue. A great example is Viva Pinata - it sold similarly to Eliete Beat Agents in month 1. In Japan, a game like that would plummet the next week and go nowhere. However, it managed to increase sales by 400% and wind up with somewhere near 100,000 units in December. Impossible in Japan but do-able here. I think also it's the way the markets develop. Movies are a great example. In the US, a movie will play on the weekend, and drop anywhere from 50-65% from its first week if it's a blockbuster. If its under 50%, it has "legs" and is considered very good, but in most other countries, like Japan, a movie can appear, do $10,000,000 it's first 2-3 days, then wind up with over $100m. Could also be cultural differences. Maybe Americans just are too lazy to go out and buy the game as quickly as our asian counterparts?
Back from the dead, I'm afraid.
