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Nintendo seems to have the art of producing chase items down pat since launching the Wii, and Wii Fit is its latest product to achieve sell-out status across North America. Howver, Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter believes there is another reason for the North American shortage; with the U.S. dollar getting weaker than ever especially compared to the euro, Nintendo is prioritizing shipment of new stocks to Europe to capitalize on the stronger currency which in turn leads to stronger profits.

If fact, by Pachter's reckoning Nintendo could be sending up to four times as many copies of Wii Fit to Europe compared to North America. Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, Pachter estimates that North American Wii Fit shipments currently stand at 500,000 units versus the 2 million already sold in Europe.  He previously pegged total North American Wii Fit sales to reach 3 to 4 million units before the end of the year.  To be sure sure, Europe managed to get its hands on something from Nintendo ahead of North America this time around.

"The shortage demonstrates one consequence of the weak dollar. We're seeing companies ignore their largest market simply because they can make a greater profit elsewhere... They know that Americans will be just as fat a few months from now."

Pachter was recently honored by the Financial Times as the top earnings estimater for software (including video games, of course), so maybe it's not just more of that Wii Fit naysaying we're seeing here.  In any case, Pachter is joined by IDC analyst Billy Pidgeon, who fears that Nintendo could be shooting itself in the foot if it can't meet the purported demand for Wii Fit in North America.  These same fears emerged when Nintendo released the Wii console in short supply; the situation is definitely similiar, but steam hasn't run out for the console itself despite its history of hardware shortages.  Can we say the same for Wii Fit?