1st there was the Fire Emblem launch hell where people did not get their game on release day.

I just went to my local Gamestop and Walmart to look for a copy of Luigi's Mansion. Out of stock. Pissing me off.

What's the huge deal with the supply shortages? Are they trying to get us to buy more digitally? I understand that the carts themselves are made in Japan and shipped here, so maybe there have been some issues with the shipping or the manufacturing.

Some theories I have:

1.Pushing Digital (Hard to believe when they don't have account systems yet, but they do release games there on Midnight.)

2.Animal Crossing's unprecedented demand (I'm aware that the AC cart is a "special" one so it doesn't account for the rest of the games, but they might have redirected some workload into manufacturing those carts instead of regular carts to ship over to the states.)

Might Nintendo actually be doing this intentionally? Or is there something that we don't know yet? And I'm wondering if the shortage is happening in other regions too. My god, the Pokemon X/Y launch if this continues is going to be something to see.

Australia is in the same boat with EB games for 3ds and Wii U games.

However JB HiFi has plenty of stock.

So I would say Gamestop is being conservative and ordering little not Nintendo.

@bold.  I found your problem. 

Still doesn't explain why my local Walmart was out of stock on it.

And Fire Emblem is STILL hard to find for some. If it was Gamestop only they'd have ordered some more after seeing the demand.

What, they don't sell Nintendo stuff?

Too many shoppers are solely dependent on Walmart and GameStop.  The masses are convinced they get the best deals while paying full price.  They have so many friggin customers that they can't meet demand.  Shop where the majority don't, you'll be better off.  And so will the economy.