The internet tubes have been clogged over the last week or so with rumours of Nintendo prepping an announcement of a new Wii, possibly at E3 in June.

Industry analyst / bigmouth Michael Pachter reckons the company should have done this two years ago already, though.

“I think that the right time for a launch was in front of the launches of Kinect and Move, and think that Nintendo missed the ‘perfect’ time to launch in 2009,” he tells Game Informer.

“They could have launched at $300, and would have been competitive with Kinect and Move bundles and may have kept Wii households from upgrading to one of the other consoles.

“In my view, every Kinect and Move bundle sold cost Nintendo the opportunity to convert or retain a customer. 

“Once they passed on a 2009 launch, they should have pushed to get the Wii 2 out at the same time as Kinect and Move (late 2010), to at least compete for the market share captured by Microsoft and Sony. Once again, they chose to wait, and recent hardware figures show that they missed an opportunity.”  

Not that an HD Wii would necessarily fail, however. “I think that there is still significant interest in a Wii 2, particularly from the very large Wii installed base, so it is not ‘too late,’ but it’s also not the ‘right time’,” he adds. 

Better late than never, maybe?

Nintendo, of course, has not made any formal statement on the matter.