Hi, long time reader, first time poster... anyways for quite a while I have seen a disproportionate amount of shelf space given over to Sony (at big stores such as walmart/target and those likes them) something I always found strange considering how popular the Wii has been ALL year long, and how "unpopular" the PS3 was (as well as the PSP in comparison to the DS). I tend to think the space is somewhat inherited from the PS2''s days as king. Now I am wondering if others think Sony will be loosing shelf space and prominence (being visible at the front of the store/department) to the Wii/DS and possibly the 360.

 Also am I the only one that has seen this? Is it only because of the PS2's popularity and the belief among retailers that PS2 popularity = PS3 popularity?

At the Wal Marts I've seen, PS3 always has an endcap, while the Wii is stuck as far away as possible... (and congrats on your first post! )

I believe that people will continue to have faith in the PS3, just like Sega fanboys did for the Dreamcast.... Except the PS3 won't die obviously!! I am just talking blind faith part.

Really? I mean it's one thing for fans to have faith, but numbers never lie and neither does profits or sales, will retail stores still do the same thing after the holiday?

Perhaps, just perhaps. An item that you think people would want isn't exactly what you think.

When faced with choices, people will always pick the first, unless it's unavailable.

Choices are good. It drives prices down. We win.

I do think PS3 will by pass XBOX360, that high % of RRoD leaves a bad taste behind.
I predict that PS3 should pass 360 sometime near the end of '08 Q4.

no, they will wise up eventually. But they are not going to rearrange their stores on a few big months. I give em till spring to get their act together.

I can remember a time when shelfspace was pretty much all nintendo. I have seen a few wal-marts where the Wii section has begun to slide into the 360s space.

Time will tell I suppose.

Quite often, prime shelf locations are paid for. So a manufacturer may give the retailer a discount on their product to get a better location. The better the location, the more the manufacturer has to discount/pay. This is especially true in big chains like WalMart.

At my local Mediamarkt the opposite thing happened, the place that used to be for the PS2 is now for the wii and where the wii used to be is now the home of the ps3, ps2 just has a little bit next to the xbox now.

i've always seen tons of space given to the 360 then with ps3 much much less and about the same amount to the wii. but i did just go into toys r us and now they have huge amounts of wii space (and it was decimated by the way!) and still a decent amount of space for 360 and a bit less for ps3.