Wasn't the big stink coming out of E3 over the fact that Nintendo completely glossed over whether or not Brawl would be a WiFi title?
I'd venture a guess that some delays have been due to ironing out the online roadmap for Wii, as it seems Nintendo did miss the boat entirely here up through 2005. Which is to say, they didn't think online would be a big deal, until it suddenly blew up on them with the Nitro/DS, leaving them scrambling to fix all the holes they didn't think they'd have with Revolution/Wii.
I mean, come on ... it's December 2007 and Reggie is answering conference calls about headsets and voice chat for the Wii? They haven't figured this out yet?!
I do think you're right, though. There is no reason to drop all the software up front when many potential buyers can't even get the hardware. It's better to stagger the releases with one big bomb every three or four months, and stretch out the software to maximize sales and keep buyers coming back to the Nintendo cases at the stores.
