Even as the fan base continues to grow for Monday Morning Quarterback, our monthly assessment of the videogame biz with Geoff Keighley, the Level Up staff can't afford to become complacent. Because on any given Sunday, one of those young, hungry QBs angling to take our spot could finally succeed. So when we heard complaints from some of our most trusted industry sources that each lengthy installment of MMQB, though highly informative, was simply too much for them to consume in a single morning cappuccino sitting, we took it as a glaring weakness in our game that had to be shored up. After consulting with our coaches, we've added a new weapon to our arsenal: the Highlight Reel, a condensed "SportsCenter"-like list of the Top Ten excerpts, taken both from MMQB and from things said or written in response to our monthly email banter. And to give the whole affair more of a multimedia feel, we're including a suggested playlist of songs, with each track carefully selected for its thematic or titular relevance to a particular excerpt. Here is the Monday Morning Quarterback Highlight Reel for September 2007; enjoy.

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#1. NPD Says Sayonara to the Media ("Say It Ain't So," Weezer)

N'Gai Croal: I'll close out on a high note, with some good scoop for this edition of MMQB. Unfortunately, this scoop will taste bittersweet, as it's also bad news for us, our fellow journalists, and forum-dwellers across North America. Beginning with the October sales data, which is due later this month, NPD is going to cut way back on what they share on a monthly basis with their non-paying customers, i.e. media.

What does this mean?

For starters, no more hardware sales data. (Can you taste the bitter tears streaming from various forums and message boards?) Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo will of course be free to release their own sales info—and presumably leak that of their competitors, if it'll make them look good—but we will no longer receive that data from NPD. Software sales figures will only be given for the Top Five SKUs, not the Top Ten as we normally receive. We'll eventually receive hardware numbers and Top Ten software numbers, but only on a quarterly and annual basis. There are signs that this may only be a temporary pullback, but for now, this is were things stand.

#2. NPD's David Riley 'Taken Aback' by Fanboy Furor ("Land of Confusion," Genesis)

Patrick Klepek, 1UP.com: When Newsweek broke word the NPD Group would be reducing the amount of data released month-to-month to the public via the media, there was a decidedly mixed response. On one hand, it's frustrating we'll be unable to track, analyze and better understand the industry's performance every month, but not too shocking given the NPD Group only started releasing the information freely a year ago.

1UP contacted NPD Group PR representative David Riley, who expressed some shock over how many were upset over the upcoming change. "I had no idea this would be so ill-received. Honestly, I know this sounds ignorant but I really was taken aback when I started hearing/reading about this. It was unexpected," he said.

#3. A Modest Proposal to Force the NPDs' Return ("Fight the Power," Public Enemy)

Stephen Totilo, MTV News: I like access to information as much as the next guy, but I find the uproar about this hilarious. Thousands of comments on NeoGAF. Blog headlines everywhere.

Last week the crisis (via Kotaku) was that games shouldn't be quantified by review scores. Now garments are being shredded over the -- panic! -- challenge of covering the console horse race without being able to count the strides. Oh no. What would we do without our precious numbers?

If only gaming qualities generated as fervent discussion as gaming quantities.

What this situation needs is for the gaming press to strike back. If the press can't have their sales numbers, then the industry should be stripped of Metacritic. Stop numbering game reviews. Make this whole thing a number-free zone.

That'll show 'em.

#4. Take-Two's Carnival Games Trumps EA, Activision and THQ's Wii Efforts ("Wicked Game," Chris Isaak)

Geoff Keighley: With the PS3 in a weakened position and the 360 coasting along in third gear (but not fifth), the most interesting stat in the September NPD relates to the Wii. And it's not Wii Play's sales. No, it's the sales of the top third party game, #15 on the overall charts: Carnival Games from Take-Two Interactive. Now by all accounts this is a throwaway game, with a milk bottle throw and a skeeball simulator. And it's beating the sales of any games from EA, Activision, THQ?! This should be sending a shockwave through the industry! Here the Wii is the best selling platform of the year, and EA is being beaten by a bunch of carnival games with motion controls?

#5. A Defense of Take-Two's "Throwaway" Carnival Games ("We Are Family," Sister Sledge)

Bill Harris, Dubious Quality: Why did I say that Geoff had it backwards? Because when he says "...by all accounts this is a throwaway game," he was referring to the reviews, which have been dismal. On Metacritic, there are 22 reviews with an average score of 56.

So reviewers really despised this game. I think that's one example, though, of the fundamental disconnect between how the people who review Wii games play them and how everyone else plays them. Another good example is Mario Party 8, which has an average score of 62 with 39 reviews. It's another game that reviewers really disliked--and it's sold well over a million units.

Again, as a one-person game, a 62 is a fair score. But who's going to play it by themselves?

The reviews for Wii games that are primarily a single-player experience have been much more accurate overall, so it's not that reviewers hate the Wii. They just aren't playing the "party games" in the context in which they're meant to be played.

#6. Do Third Parties Get What It Takes to Make Wii Hits? ("Instant Karma," John Lennon)

Geoff Keighley: EA CEO John Riccitiello was right on the EA earnings call when he said EA's "Family Play" initiative for the Sports titles is about a 2/10 in terms of where it needs to be on the Wii. With the success of Wii Sports, where is EA Sports' Mini-Golf Putting Game? Or EA's Dartboard? The games that are working on the Wii aren't titles with 8-month PR plans that get the cover of Game Informer. They are smaller, impulse purchases with simple names. And the successful titles all seem to be concepts that can be grasped by looking at the box for 5 seconds. These games should be quick and easy to produce and it continues to baffle me that all the major third party publishers haven't figured out how to crack this market. In fact, here's my tip to Sony: If Microsoft can make Viva Pinata for the Wii, they should seriously think about putting Afrika on the Wii. Maybe it would do so well that Sony could afford to put backwards compatibility back in the PS3!

#7. The Wii's 'Mini-Game' Problem ("Go See the Doctor," Kool Moe Dee)

N'Gai Croal: If I were to issue a partial diagnosis, I'd call it the Mini-Game Problem: Wii Sports is packed in with the Wii, and Wii Play is packed in with the extra remote. So as soon as a consumer gets home from the store and sets up the Wii, he or she is being doubly indoctrinated into the Cult of the Mini-Game. You have to figure that depressed third party sales on Wii compared to, say, Xbox 360, stem from new Wii buyers coming home already in possession of two bundled games--make that 16 or so mini-games--so in the near-term, what's the incentive for them to buy more? Especially it's the ultra-casual gamer who only breaks out the Wii when friends come to visit. At this point, if I were a third party publisher, I'd be completely stumped as to what Wii owners want from me. Activision should do nicely with Guitar Hero III; when it comes to the rest, all bets are off.

#8. The PS3's Continuing Fall From Grace ("Dig A Hole," Jay-Z featuring Sterling Simms)

Geoff Keighley: As you mentioned, I attended Nite 2 Unite a few weeks ago and the September NPD was on everyone's mind. (The data came out the night after the annual charity dinner). Rupert Murdoch even put in a surprise appearance, moving about the room to talk to the likes of THQ's Brian Farrell and Ubisoft's Laurent Detoc. Sony's Ken Kutaragi received the honorary award this year from EA CEO Larry Probst, and the tribute video spent a lot of time talking about the success of the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 hitting 100 million units worldwide. The PS3 section of the video was short on numbers and more focused on technology like Folding@Home. No wonder why: Sony knew what the NPD was going to say the next morning.

#9. Did Nintendo Botch the PR and Marketing for Retro Studios' Metroid Prime 3? ("Apologize," Timbaland featuring One Republic)

N'Gai Croal: Given the Metacritic scores for the first Metroid Prime (97) and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (92), maybe Retro Studios should catch the zeitgeist, pull a Bungie and free itself from Nintendo's clutches "unleash" its creativity as part of a "natural evolution" of its relationship with its Japanese owners. Can you think of another Western first-party studio putting out games as acclaimed as the Metroid Prime series with as little to show for it in sales--or in marketing, for that matter? Even though Metroid Prime 3 got stage time at Nintendo's E3 press conference, I can't help but feel as though Retro has fallen victim to either increasing indifference from Nintendo to hardcore gamers or a ruthless focus by Nintendo's marketing department on first, the platform itself, and second, the games it believes will be guaranteed hits.

....Nintendo is making money hand over fist, generating ridiculous profits, soaring to the number two spot by market cap in Japan--and its North American marketing team decides to pretend that it's Steve Jobs a month before Halo 3 ships? As sleek and retro-futuristic as the Wii may be, Nintendo isn't Apple, and the release of one of its most acclaimed U.S.-developed franchises shouldn't have been a "One more thing..."-style announcement. It's funny that Nintendo is deservedly winning all of these awards for its advertising and branding of the Wii platform, yet the company's game-by-game PR and marketing becomes more and more eccentric. I can only wonder how Retro feels about Nintendo's marketing experiment. And if carpet bombing-style advertising wasn't enough to keep Bungie on the reservation, imagine how "stifled" the guys at Retro must feel.

#10. So Much For the HD Revolution ("The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," Gil Scott-Heron)

Geoff Keighley: In a way Sony, is handing the keys to the kingdom to Microsoft this holiday season. But will Microsoft fully capitalize on the opportunity? I'm not so sure. Why? It might have something to do with a Nielsen study that came out which says only 14 percent of US homes have HD-capable TVs. This is less than half what was estimated by the Consumer Electronics Association in July, and may help explain why the Wii continues to dominate relative to the 360 and PS3.

For the original full-length version of Monday Morning Quarterback for September 2007, click here.