Gahiggidy
My aunt & uncle run a Mom & Pop store, "The Gamecube Hut", and sold 80k WiiU within minutes of opening.
Yeah, this was what they needed to avoid. I have no issues with this happening throughout the life of a console, but at launch it's a terrible idea - you're trying to get somebody to invest hundreds of dollars in your new console, don't just show them launch games! Consider the breadth of awesome titles Nintendo had at least shown or announced by the time the 3DS launch rolled around.
It would be like Nintendo deciding to keep Mario Galaxy and Metroid Prime 3 under wraps for the E3-2006 blowout.