Wii Fit and its bundled Balance Board launched in Japan on December 1st with an initial 300k units (and more since), but North Americans won’t be able to buy it over-the-counter until sometime next spring. That doesn’t mean you won’t be able to get your hands on the new peripheral though, since you can get it from various online auction sites. The good part? You won’t have to be paying much extra, if at all.
In fact, if you consider shipping and importing costs, it’s probably going to cause quite the loss for the sellers. You might even be able to find the Wii Balance Board for less than its MSRP of ¥8,800 (US $78). The reason? Not enough demand. Wii Fit is already a huge hit in Japan, and the interest here in the States is pointing to a potentially huge hit (assuming Nintendo markets it correctly), so maybe people are just realizing that a little patience will lead to being able to purchase the units in a mere few months.
