One of the cherished traditions for people in and around the North American videogame industry is the mid-to-late month release of the previous month's sales figures for both hardware and software. Much like Hollywood with the weekend box office or the music industry with SoundScan, this data, compiled by the Port Washington, NY-based NPD Group, is the subject of much scrutiny, speculation and analysis as everyone tries to figure out What It All Means.Having engaged in many phone, email and IM back-and-forths with various people over the NPDs, as they're generally referred to, we decided to bring some of those often unheard discussions to light with our occasional feature, Monday Morning Quarterback. Our returning opponent is the prolific journalist and TV host Geoff Keighley, pitting his BlackBerry-fueled insights against our Palm-enabled observations. Some excerpts:

N'Gai Croal: What's interesting is that a lot of our cohorts in the gaming press--an admittedly unrepresentative sample--aren't playing their Wiis much. Unless they have friends come to visit, they're pretty much forsaking their Wiis for Xbox 360, DS and some Playstation Network from time to time. Wii fans regularly complain that enthusiast outlets--most notably, the gang over at Ziff-Davis' 1UP Yours podcast--are paying insufficient attention to their console of choice, and in fact spend too much time mocking the Wii for what it's not (its lack of HD graphics; the fact that it's become a dumping ground for mini-games; the trend towards porting PSP games to Wii) rather than applauding what it is: a refreshing change from the way games used to be, which is attracting new people to this hobby. But with Guitar Hero III, Rock Band and SingStar PS3 coming this holiday--and, as you point out, a bizarre lack of new games to capitalize on the Wii Sports phenomenon (sorry, EA, but jamming those controls into your pro sports titles doesn't really count)--I wonder how many of us in the media will be playing Wii Sports and Wii Play when friends come to visit.

Geoff Keighley: Until third parties figure out a better Wii strategy, they will be caught in a precarious position. Let's use EA's NCAA football game, the #1 title of the month, as an example. This year the 360 version sold almost 400,000 units, up from 333,000 units last year. That's respectable growth. But the PS2 version dropped from 490,000 units last year to 236,000 this year. Without a Wii version, the PS3 sales of 156,000 (which obviously didn't exist last July) don't make up the difference. EA may have overcharged for the PS2 SKU this year ($49 when it should have been $39), but could there be a bigger issue at hand? Are PS2 gamers moving to the Wii? Or worse, are the PS2 gamers leaving the market as active consumers? They aren't buying PS2 games anymore and they aren't upgrading to new boxes either. If that is indeed the case, the Wii becomes even more vital as a lifeline for third parties. As of now, no one has cracked the code on what makes a hit Wii game.

Click on the link below to read our exchange in its entirety. 

1. FLY...Google Earth gets a flight simulator
2. HEH...Stop snitching: J.K. Rowling, failed designer
3. WOW...Play the PS3 game Lair on your PSP
4. HMM...Satoru Iwata on Shigeru Miyamoto's genius
5. ESA...Vs. The Washington Post: Round 1--Fight!
6. RND...Does the game industry need a Rick Rubin?