went to target... saw about 12 copies. 5-6 copies local gamestop. about 10 copies local bestbuy.

amazingly, carnival games, the game i meant to get, is sold out all those places after i bought the last one at gamestop. looks like retailers are not stocking enough of this baby.

When I picked mine up my preorder from EB Games on Tuesday around 2PM they still had 6 or 7 non-preorder copies left, but when my friend went by that EB Games on Wednesday they were sold out.

How often to sowftware shortages happen? the only time a game I wanted was sold out is November, 19, when I camped out for the Wii and tried to buy Zelda.

 Not very often, the fact that they just press a disc means they have tons of units available if they want them.  A software shortage is almost always underestimated sales forecasts (as opposed to production issues etc...).  I would be shocked if the sold out on a large scale, I have a feeling its scattered sellouts with nationwide solid sales.  The real question is probably going to be how many units did they ship first week?

 As many as shops have orderd, probably. I see no reason why not. Normally they should order them weeks before the release, and i don't think that you can't find enough producer to press the ordered units in China. 

So if there is a shortage, it is most likely the shops underestimate demand.  

It seems like my area was the only one that wasn't totally sold out.

I'll be heading to Wal-Mart in... well, right now actually. I'll have an update for my location when I get back.

Updated:

 The stock was running lower. I'd say about 7 copies.

 While I agree with hating gamestop (I refuse to buy easily available games there now), he could be saying the truth.  The other copies that he had may have been the ones set aside for the preordered people.  I've had that problem before where I saw them having a copy of some game I forget and they told me it was sold out.  I pointed out that there's a box right there and they said, it was one of the ones reserved for preorders.  

After all, I would be pissed myself if I went to the bother of reserving a copy and them just giving out to someone else because I didn't pick it up yet. 

I made a few calls on release day to a few of the Gamestops/EB Games in the area, and all but one said that they only had enough copies to cover their pre-orders, and the one that had extra copies had one.

The game's numbers will be quite good... I'm hoping to pick it up on/following my birthday on the 10th. I don't want to spend the money yet, and classes just started, so playing Metroid Prime 3 all day would be bad for me. And my grades.

my local walmart was sold out, so was all other stores in the area, so i pulled in some favors from a game store I knew and they got me a copy.

the Toys R Us in Jenzten Beach (near Portland) Oregon had quite a few today; I'd say at least twenty.