Last Thursday, the NPD Group released data on videogame industry sales during the month of May 2008. The figures showed continued robust sales of the Nintendo Wii and several Nintendo-published-titles. Take-Two's Grand Theft Auto IV for the Xbox 360 was the top-selling title for the month with the PlayStation 3 version at #4 on the chart, but still did not produce an increase in hardware sales as many analysts had expected. And in the race to create the largest installed base, the Xbox 360 now leads the Nintendo Wii by fewer than 100,000 systems. At this point, halfway through June, it suffices to consider the Nintendo Wii the top-selling new console in the U.S.

Buried beneath the headline numbers, however, we have picked out some data we think is just as interesting:

• How big will each system's installed base be later this year as we head into the Holiday 2008 season?
• What are the top five best-selling games of 2008?
• What are the current tie-ratios for the three consoles, and what do they tell us about the software market?
• So far in 2008, the videogame industry in the U.S. has generated over $6.6 billion in revenue. What does history tell us we can expect for the year, based on that figure?