@Snakesglowcaps: Thing is, not everyone can afford to pre-order it, for various reasons. Lots of people have already mentioned what I'm about to: Some of those interested, when they can afford one for the msrp(manufacturer's suggested retail price) may lose interest altogether, if they can't find one. Obviously, if they have the know-how, patience, will, funds, & deep-enough interest, they can get one from online resellers. Though, to the common customer, that's a manufacturing/production issue, on behalf of the co., to make that few of a product.

@Meaty-cheeky: Either that was before the people at the top made the decision to pull the plug, or quite possibly he's referring to a (last) shipment that has already been produced.

@Everyone_else: Nintendo is known to not like over-producing, & under-selling, which makes some sense in terms of investment:returns ratio. I guess they believe their target customer bases already know when an item will be hard-to-get, or "available left, & right". Edit: It certainly is debatable whether this helps Nintendo's image, as far as any particular audience/consumer-base, by making their products seem to be so good, they disappear so quickly after hitting shelves, or hurting them, by people angry/disappointed/lose-interest/what-have-you that they can't get a particular product.