japan = games

there you have it

Has the op imbibed on some adult beverages? 

I love it when this guy gets drunk. In reality, except for the PSP which has MH, all systems are down this year in Japan.

This year, basically nothing has.  Even notable "hits" like Hokuto Musou, Yakuza 4, ACER, etc, have had precipitous drop offs.  Even in the holiday season, stuff like GT5 and Graces f are dropping down the charts at an alarming rate.

Some PS3 games had decent legs previous years (MGS4, Valkyria, BH5) but they all involved budget reprints or expanded releases.  Really, I think the platform lacking a strong mainstream audience is the reason behind it... DS, PSP and even Wii don't have the same issue, and each of them has a wider, more mainstream userbase.

Im going to repeat the used market concept. It has already been covered but it is truly probably the best explanation as to why games drop off. It also explains why Japanese developers pad out their games so much so people cannot litterally sell them back the same week they bought it.

Used games likely contribute, but that can't be the sole reason, otherwise this would be a crippling issue with DS/PSP/Wii as well. There's a userbase problem, the PS3 is just too focused, too hardcore, too niche.  It'd be interesting to see if similarly positioned secondary platforms like Sega Saturn or PC Engine had similar issues with sustained software sales.

Actually though, I can think of two PS3 games this year with pretty decent legs; Winning Eleven 2010 Blue Samurai and Winning Eleven 2011.

So you're trying to tell me that there's that many people that bought it week one that are selling the game as used already week 2?...you have to have a lot of copies out there to have a lot of used copies available.

Isn't that two sides of the same thing though?  The hardcore are more likely to buy used.

Sure, a more "core" user is probably more likely to buy used.  But the instigating factor would still fundamentally be a userbase issue, not a second market issue... with a different userbase makeup, Japan's used games market wouldn't be making the sort of impact it does on PS3 games' legs.  DS/PSP/Wii prove that out, they have no issue having games with long legs.

yes, it is not uncommon for many people to buy it day 1 and sell it day 2.  There is no rental system, if you want to play a game you have to buy it, the resell values are very high compared to other countries, and the faster you sell it the higher the value will be.  There is an incentive to sell it faster because of that.