Well Zelda The Ocarine of Time 3D has hit the Japanese pre-order chart, but seems like Nintendo is not going to supply a lot of games.

A warning from the Sinobi blog, a trusted source for retail leaks. If you want Zelda: Ocarina of Time on 3DS at launch, you'd better pre-order.

According to the blog, the first shipment for Zelda will be "extremely small." Nintendo is not allowing retailers to place orders for the game and allotments are going to be small for all retailers, small and large.

Why is Nintendo being so strict with shipments for what could be the system's biggest game yet? The blog writer suspects that it could be an attempt at avoiding the bargain bin sales that took place for Zelda: Spirit Tracks. Large quantities of the DS title were found in bargain bins in the months after its release. (See this story.)

http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2011/04/30/zelda_3ds_shipment/

I just hope they don't do the same for North American release.... 

Um, making the game worth it for players is how to prevent the bargain bin, not trying to rig the supply.

Likely just them acknowledging Japan's general apathy towards Zelda and playing up the scarcity angle to try to hedge that

Just to avoid another thread, if you preorder this game in Germany you get this baby:

http://www.amazon.de/Legend-Zelda-Nintendo-3DS-Tasche/dp/B004Y4Q3UE/ref=br_lf_m_1000507163_1_2_ttl?ie=UTF8&m=A3JWKAKR8XB7XF&s=videogames&pf_rd_p=240248927&pf_rd_s=center-3&pf_rd_t=1401&pf_rd_i=1000507163&pf_rd_m=A3JWKAKR8XB7XF&pf_rd_r=1EX01AB3PF8TSJ4EGY88

Justifiable, considering Japan's recent apathy towards Zelda.

wait, I thought you got paid just for shipping it to the stores and the stores ordered. I'm confused

Or maybe the whole thing is there's no "medium" shipments... i dunno D:

Well I assume it is that nintendo does not want to overestimate demand on stores behave. I wouldn't worry in North America, Nintendo knows that enough demand exists here! :P

More like they don't like the direction of the series, than the series itself. Phantom Hourglass did better sales than Twilight Princess, but then Spirit Tracks did even worse.

2 possibilities : either Nintendo expects the title to bomb in Japan or they want to create a fake shortage like they did for the Last Story.