The Nintendo Wii had a decline in sales this February, and analyst Michael Pachter thinks there is more to the sales drop than simply a lack of supply....

Following the disappointing February sales data, a number of analysts weighed in on the results. While sales were expected to be down, it seems the final tally was a bit lower than expected. Part of it has to do with continued declines in the music games genre, and another major contributor is the drop-off in Wii sales.

Regarding the Wii, EEDAR's Jesse Divnich noted that shortages continue to plague Nintendo. "Our extensive retail channel checks have all indicated that, in fact, the Nintendo Wii is in short supply. We believe February numbers reflect entirely on the Wii being supply constrained and has little to do with declining demand of the product," he said.

Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter disagrees, however; he thinks the Wii decline isn't simply a result of shortages. "Nintendo’s overall performance was well below our expectations, with software down over 30% and Wii hardware units down almost 50%. Nintendo had warned us that February would be a difficult month due to supply constraints, but we believe that the problem runs deeper than that, as sales of staple titles like Wii Fit with Balance Board and Wii Play were well below historical levels," he noted.

Miss Razz via industrygamers.com »