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"Have Ninty shot themselves in the foot?"

Possably a minor setback or a view of things to come but after going into my local G*me store I noticed GBA SP with nice big stands and plenty of promotional stuff. I also notice that Gamecube Hardware, software and accessories were relegated to small middle shelves (The ones you stumble into when its busy!) at the back of the store!

Now either the SP has replaced much of GC territory just as the Metroid Prime Paks are launched or the Xbox is expanding and displacing the GC. I dont like the way things are going market wise. The GameCube cant be doomed yet can it? Especially with big name games coming out this year. Surely its temporary adjustments for the GBA SP launch...

What you think?

Stupid thing is shops would probably make more money putting PS2 at the back... that way all the God-knows-how-many people who have PS2s have to walk to the back of the store past all the GC, Xbox, PC games/consoles and they may see something there they want, and be tempted to buy another console too. As it is with PS2 gear at the front, people who own a PS2 probably don't even see what is available on other consoles... But as long as console manufacturers keep paying them for shelf space I don't spose games stores care too much...

Those local game shops are better, the main one by me where everyone seems to go (because it plainly is the best despite being situated in a little back street) isn't biased at all. In fact Nintendo products take up the entier centre of the shop with the other consoles stuff being placed around it, all systems seem to have similar shelf space. (I think PS2's is slightly bigger because they have more games though)

One thing though they release games before they are supposed to i.e Mario Sunshine was for sale on the Tuesday and not the Friday, tut tut.

Oh and a whole two shelves dedicated to the Freeloader and all it's Import stuff.

The GAME near me has a single shelf for each console with all the new releases on them.

Come to think of it they should have some kind of game of the week shelf at the front of the store, with the best offerings from each console side by side. That way all consoles would get a fair deal.

There's no way around the fact that retailers in the UK are totally biased towards the PS2, I know it's down a lot to the fact that PS2 sells by the s--- load, but I still think it's unfair that they neglect other consoles so much.

Hopefully with the recent sales figures of Cube games and consoles maybe the retailers might wake up a bit and realise that other console do exist.

All the Nintendo stuff is at the back in my local GAME, the only things that aren't are the secong hand games which are in a little rack along with all the other systems second hand games.

Except the PS2 of course which has a huge shelf (bigger than GC's main shelf) dedicated to second hand PS2 games.

Cube's been out selling PS2 in the UK so it's anything but doing badly.

It's strange though, some GAME shops i've been in have given very little space for Cube games while others have a good 4 even 5 big shelves for Cube.

One thing that's always the same though is Cube and Xbox are relegated to the back of the shop.

Possably a minor setback or a view of things to come but after going into my local G*me store I noticed GBA SP with nice big stands and plenty of promotional stuff. I also notice that Gamecube Hardware, software and accessories were relegated to small middle shelves (The ones you stumble into when its busy!) at the back of the store!

Now either the SP has replaced much of GC territory just as the Metroid Prime Paks are launched or the Xbox is expanding and displacing the GC. I dont like the way things are going market wise. The GameCube cant be doomed yet can it? Especially with big name games coming out this year. Surely its temporary adjustments for the GBA SP launch...

What you think?