I think this is because blockbuster knows that if MS/Xbox is right, and internet delivery is the future for movie rentals and purchases, they are in big trouble.  PS3 represents the last ditch effort to keep the old spinning discs relevant - and it (PS3 / BluRay) needs to succeed for Blockbuster to remain relevant a few more years.

That's the way the retail world works. A product underperforms, and they push it less, leading it to underperforming even more.

A product performs very well, and they push it like mad, trying to steal sales from other retailers. Hence all the ads for Wiis in Best Buy circulars, despite the fact that they're always sold out anyhow.

Because the 360 and Wii have higher install bases and higher attachment ratios they sell significantly more games than the PS3 (in America), so if you're going to have a sale wouldn't you much rather use it to draw in your biggest audiences?

Of course things like this tend to follow in a rather nasty cycle, your item sells fewer units than expected, because of this retailers stock fewer of your items, because they stock less of your items they market you less, because you're marketed less people tend to buy less of your product, so your item sells fewer units than expected and this process has a nasty habit of repeating.

This gets especially nasty during recessions since retailers are much less likely to order an overabundance of your latest title to guarantee they meet demand and the customer doesn't go looking elsewhere because profitability becomes more important than customer satisfaction and retention. So a Gamestop might only order the 50 copies of Grand Turismo they know they can sell rather than 80 copies because they don't want to take a loss on the extra inventory. Typically this hits the guy in last place the worst since retailers weren't making a huge profit on his items in the first place.

Its completely my fault that the PS3 tanked this generation. I inadvertantly fell of the side of my bed the day it was released thereby creating a butterfly effect that bumped the PS3 off the main shelves at every retailer. It cost Sony an extra $200 per console to place them back on the top shelf but by then it was too late because the unicorns had already started pulling the sleigh and santa got kidnaped by jewish monks. If i had just fallen a little more to the right, it would have been the Wii that would have suffering Sony's fate and the 360 would have been crushed by a hemp smoking chia pet.

You didnt see as many PS3 ads because retailers get better returns on their advertising dollars with the Wii and 360. I did see some PS3 ads but I have to admit that I was surprised that they sold as well as they did last holiday season. This generation is over. Time to move on to the next.

Developers, developers, developers!