Maybe retailer pre-orders for Elites were lower than expected, and sales were higher than anticipated?
It seems like the Japanese have gotten into a casual rut when it comes to sales: they buy only a few copies of various games, sell out, then slowly buy more copies. For many games, however, by that time, the major rush of sales are over, used copies are hitting the shelves, and developers/publishers don't get to ship many more copies.
Forza Motorsports 2, Folklore, Dragon Quest Swords, and a few others have been very telling of this: they sell out week 1, then totally go DOA afterwards.
Hopefully retailers start wising up and realizing "hey, maybe we should all stock copies of a given game" because not every store is most likely stocking elites, allowing those that actually have them (like Amazon) to make a good profit.
Back from the dead, I'm afraid.
