The UK's Telegraph has published an article claiming that Wii Fit may be sold out by Christmas. If the desperate emails we get from readers are anything to go by, then never mind Christmas, for the vast majority of people, Wii Fit is sold out now.

While this kind of scaremongering only helps to feed the frenzy, it may unfortunately prove to be true. The article quotes a spokesperson for one of the UK's largest electrical retailers who says, "If we get 1,000 in on Thursday or Friday they are all gone by Sunday. We comfortably sell out of our allocation".

Meanwhile the debate goes on with regards to why there's an ongoing shortage of stock. Is it simply a case of demand outstripping supply? And just how much is the average consumer being cheated by the whole buy and resell at a profit on eBay market?

You'd have thought that Nintendo would have learnt a lesson from the Wii console launch and ensured that there was more than enough stock this time around. But the conspiracy theorists among you will say that in fact the artificial shortage of the console actually worked in Nintendo's favour and now they’re simply doing the same with Wii Fit. You've got to love a good conspiracy.

Update: It seems that all this doom and gloom in the papers about stock shortages got the attention of Nintendo who responded to MCV in an attempt to reassure the public.

As for the whole conspiracy theory thing, this blog post received (if the associated email address is to be believed) a comment from Nintendo.com confirming 'intentional shortage'. I'm sorry, call me naïve, but I don't believe a word of it so nice try whoever you were. The fact is that when there's limited supply of something, a company will move that stock to where it makes most financial sense - surely that's not 'intentional shortage', that's business strategy? As to why Nintendo doesn't seem to be able to cope with demand, only Nintendo knows the real answer and anything other than that is simply speculation.