SALES OF GAMES HARDWARE and games are falling, in the US at least.

February is rarely a good month for sales, according to a story at the Associated Press. We expect that this is because it is a short month that includes Valentines Day. Few sensible men would choose to buy the latest blasty shoot-em-up over a bouquet of garage forecourt flowers, but this month was worst than most.

The AP quotes figures from analysts the NPD group, which said that Americans spent $1.26 billion on video game systems, software and accessories during the month, down from $1.48 billion a year ago. "I had expected the industry to perform somewhat better this month," said NPD Group analyst Anita Frazier in a statement. No prizes for guessing what she didn't get for Valentines. Yup, BioShock 2.

In fact, much of the drop is the result of the fact that people have stopped buying Wii Fit, or instrument peripheral cash cows such as Guitar Hero. So maybe its time we had some new ideas.

And no, we don't mean ones that involve glowing orbs. µ