whether they delayed smash on purpose or not, Wii doesn't need smash for Christmas season demand. Wii would sell out even if only wii sports, galaxy and zelda were available.

on the topic - I cant see it directly but perhaps indirectly - ie with the alleged Disk shortage perhaps Nintendo did do the honourably thing and allocate disks to third parties such as Sega when one time they would have used them for SMG.

Off topic I think as Nintendo knew the Wii was always gonna be a must have this year and the types of gamers that SSBB will attract (see how I didn't use Hardcore there..... oh bugger) they knew that they could delay till 2009 to both please third parties this xmas as justy maybe if third parties had an unsuccessfull xmas then it may have a detremental effect on Wii quality throughout 2009 and to avoid another quarter 1 Wii drought in 2008.

my point exactly gawalls.
Nintendo needs thirth party to win this generation and if they can help them they will.
The knew smg would sell a lot anyhow so why not give sega ( it is more a like nintendo/sega anyhow) a good boost with it
and they probably get some money from that deal as well for every sold copy so it's not really a problem if they would recieve the money for mario and sonic or for smg.
They benefit from both.

I think it's a matter of prioritising as well, Nintendo games have legs longer than an oil rig so they know in 6 months time SMG will still be flavour of the month when Mario and Sonic will be gathering dust.

Just in time for Nintendo to bundle it with the Wii, knowing they haven't kicked the arse out of the game and it'll still turn some maybe's into Yes's for choosing Wii

I actually think it would be a pretty decent idea to have a Mario bundle once Wii supply starts to catch up. By that I mean, you could have something like a Wii + any 2 Mario games or something (and I use the term Mario here loosely to include Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, Mario Party, Strikes and Galaxy and so on).

I think by next xmas you'll be getting Wii Sports, Wii Play, 2 wiimotes and a choice of SMG or Zelda.

That way - by bundling Wii play in they can advertise it as having 14 games or something like that.

Apsolutely not. What company tries to lessen their sales to enhance others. 1st party games are in competition with 3rd party games on the same console for sales. It's a business not a help program haha.

 God I hope you know I did that on purpose, I even italicized to emphasize I knew I made a typo.  :-p

 So you attack non native english people on it?

 you forget that nintendo actually gains from the sales for m & s as well?