Remember, remember, the Fifth of November
The Level Up treason and plot
I know of no reason
Why Level Up treason
Should ever be forgot

Like Pheidippides at Marathon and Paul Revere at Lexington, the Level Up staff last week breathlessly revealed to the world the shocking news that beginning in November, the NPD group would halt its yearlong practice of releasing monthly hardware sales figures for the consoles and handhelds manufactured by Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony. Here at Monday Morning Quarterback HQ, we immediately went underground, making covert arrangements for alternate types of data that would help our rogue band of color commentators continue to shed light on the business of videogames. Meanwhile, as we correctly predicted, the intertubes quickly became clogged with the bitter tears of our fellow armchair analysts and partisan fanboys alike; ditto for the voice mailboxes at NPD group as furious forum dwellers stormed the ramparts took to their phones to rage against the machine. For with no justice, how can there be peace?

Having sown the wind, NPD representatives were nevertheless by their own admission wholly unprepared to reap the whirlwind. Even their reminder that the provision of hardware numbers to the general public was always intended to be temporary failed to quell the inflamed passions of the nascent fanboy revolution. To avoid going the way of the Tsars, the Shah or the Matrix, the NPD Group submitted to the will of the people and acknowledged the error of its ways. An NPD official confirmed to us in an email that because of the tremendous response from press and gamers, NPD had secured the unanimous consent of the three console manufacturers to continue giving media monthly hardware sales figures.

To this, we say kudos, NPD. (Though while the incredible amount of feedback certainly had an impact, we suspect that it was the prospect of the nuclear option--MTV News reporter Stephen Totilo's Lysistrata-like modest proposal that videogame reviewers withhold their scores until the NPD resumed publication of hardware sales figures--that ultimately forced the industry's hand. For without the irrefutably objective truth of Metacritic and Gamerankings, could developers really be held accountable? Could bonuses ever be paid? Could bragging rights truly be claimed? Nay, say we. Nay.)

In all seriousness, though, we're genuinely pleased by the NPD Group's decision to reverse themselves and keep providing us with hardware sales figures. We've always found them pleasant, responsive, accommodating and genuinely helpful, even on the tightest of deadlines. So we wish them the best going forward, and we look forward to resuming our working relationship with them as if nothing had happened.