Wedbush Morgan Securities' 2009 industry report includes a list of the top thirty brands of 2008. The report notes that of the companies whose brands appear on the list, Nintendo, EA, and Activision were the only three with more than one brand to generate over $100 million at retail in the US last year.

And boy, did they. The top brand of the year, Guitar Hero -- perhaps you've heard of it -- was responsible for $992 million in US sales in 2008. The next two brands, Mario Bros. and Rock Band, generated $761 million and $662 million, respectively.

One company is notably absent from the top brands list: "Most strikingly," the report reads, "Sony had no top 30 brands for the third year in a row." Microsoft had two brands on the list (Gears of War and Fable) and Nintendo had four (Mario Bros., Wii Fit, Wii Play, and Pokémon). See the list of brands after the break.

Thanks to the success of games such as Wii Fit, EA Sports Active and Jillian Michaels' Fitness Ultimatum 2009, the medical community is starting to take games seriously as a means to pump you up keep us healthy. Reuters reports that at this year's fifth annual Games for Health Conference in Boston, a bolstered attendance brought health experts together to talk about these games, and you'd be surprised how much money these titles generated last year.

"Healthcare is 18 percent of the GDP of the United States and so games for health is probably the largest sector of activity in the serious games field long-term," said Ben Sawyer, a co-founder of The Games for Health Project. He added, "If you add up the 18 month sales of Wii Fit and the sales of EA Sports Active, Konami's Dance Dance Revolution and other healthy games, the worldwide retail numbers are over $2 billion." That's not a bad slice of the $22 billion pie that gaming lovingly prepared last year, if we may say so.

Some experts think the government should look into offering these types of games in schools to help kids learn the importance of exercise, while others think that a public service campaign should be started and backed by the president, Congress, and other federal agencies. We'd comment, but we really only play Wii Fit for the hulahoop game.

While the idea of leaning on a board and waving a stick around may no longer carry an inherent wow factor after everyone has introduced a motion controller, it's clear from just a few minutes with Nintendo's Wii Fit Plus that the company has been thinking of new ways to use its existing technology in gameplay. We weren't allowed to demo the new strength or yoga exercises in the expanded version of the megahit Wii exercise game -- thus sparing a crowd of gaming's best and brightest the sight of us stretching -- but the new balance games were open to us.

As expected, Nintendo has seen fit to announce Wii Fit Plus during its E3 presser. The new fitness software is planned for release this fall in two flavors: bundled with the Wii Balance Board and as stand-alone software.

According to Cammie Dunaway, the new Wii Fit "moves in an added direction" beyond the original, by enabling users to "create a specific workout program that's perfect" for them. Six new strength and yoga activities can be mixed and match depending on what goals they're shooting for, and there's a revamped interface focused on creating seamless routines of 20, 30, 40 minutes (and conceivably more).

Strengthening the "core" appeal, Plus will introduce 15 new minigames -- juggling, skateboarding and something called "perfect 10" were shown, the latter requiring players to move their hips to select numbers that add up to 10. "Brain Age for your backside," Cammie said. The most exciting minigame: a forward-moving "platforming" level using gameplay elements from the Mario series.

The lid's been blown off Wii Fit Plus; been there, done that. But, if your inner fitness nut is craving more info, Japan's Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper has posted some potential details on the title.

Supposedly, Wii Fit Plus boasts some new online connectivity to allow family members and friends to compete in the loss-of-flabby-arms race. Also, the new software is supposedly going to allow for more accurate measuring of weight and center of gravity, though it's said this improvement comes from the software side, and not some new Balance Board Nintendo has been hiding up its sleeve.

While we can't comment on this new information from Nihon Keizai Shimbun, it's pretty much a done deal on this whole Wii Fit Plus business. Remember to have those bingo cards ready, folks!

[Via IGN]

Nintendo's core needs a workout, but it looks like the company may be planning to pump up its casual audience even more at next week's E3 with Wii Fit Plus. Originally uncovered in April via purported retailer listings, the game's title has been officially trademarked by Nintendo in Japan. Heck, there's even a logo for the game. Since the month-old rumor has borne fruit in terms of an accurate title, we're more likely to believe the November 2009 release date it claimed.

Also trademarked by the Big N is Art Academy, a previously unheard -of title with no target platform mentioned. Detailed drawing would seem to lend itself more to DS, though we can't help but imagine a game in the vein of Wii Music in which players "paint" great works of art -- the Mona Lisa, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel -- simply by waggling the Wiimote around.

[Via Siliconera]

Wii Fit has been selling extremely well, taking the top spot for the seventh week in a row, Chart-Track data shows. In fact, a record of nine weeks in a row was set by Who Wants to be a Millionaire (no platforms mentioned), and Nintendo's Balance Board bundle is on pace to tie that record should it frequent the top spot for the next two weeks.

Unsurprisingly, soccer football game FIFA 09 managed to take the second spot, pushing last week's second place holder, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, down to third. Interesting to note is the inclusion of Battlestations: Pacific on the list. The game only released in the UK last week for Xbox 360 and PC, and managed to win the battle for last place, taking up the tenth spot.

From the folks that brought you ... erm ... a bunch of case mods for the Xbox 360, comes the "Wii Riiser Aerobic Step" for your Wii Fit Balance Board. Just in case you were unsatisfied with the heights that the existing step peripheral offered, Zoozen has gone out and created an attachment to boost the level up to a more challenging four inches.

The company contests this is the average height of an actual stepper (which we won't point out also costs significantly less than the Wii Fit and "Wii Riiser Aerobic Step" combined), and as such, will help "improve your step aerobic workout." While we're sure this peripheral would attach to your Balance Board that much easier than two pieces of equally sized wood, we're not so sure it would serve a different purpose. Zoozen's "Wii Riiser Aerobic Step" is available now for the not-so-nice price of $39.99.

Why doesn't Wii Fit include an estimate of the calories you burn during exercises? That would be really useful. Nintendo seems to agree, at least -- it has created a Flash application that does just that.

The Wii Fit Calorie Meter couldn't be easier to use, unless it were in English! Push the big green button in the middle to start, then enter your weight (in kilograms). You can then click on each exercise you've done (or plan to do) and tell the calculator the number of sets you've done of each. The app will add up your calories as you go!

We suspect we'll see this thing in English soon enough, but the interface is so easy to figure out, there's no reason you can't augment your Wii Fit exercise routine now.

[Via Famitsu]

For another week in the United Kingdom, Godfather II has managed to secure the illustrious second spot on the top entertainment software list. According to Chart-Track, this is the second week in a row the game has been in the number two spot -- but there are some titles releasing to the PAL territory that could topple this kingpin. It'll be interesting to see what the charts look like next week.

Of course, Godfather II was predictably bested again by Wii Fit, so it's not all gabbagool and broken kneecaps in the UK. Not yet, anyway ...

The UK likes its crime, apparently, as EA's Godfather II has managed to soar to the #2 spot on the region's sales charts. Sure, we've seen a few Guy Ritchie flicks in our life, but we're fairly surprised that you lot turned out in droves to check out the exploits of the Corleone family. The game even managed to topple Resident Evil 5 and Mario and Sonic at the Olympics, which we all know are like crack to the UK.

Godfather II was not able to keep Wii Fit from the top spot this week, however. But, hey, the sky is still blue and the grass is still green, so what did you expect?

Some New York city schools are testing a new program for physical education, one that utilizes Nintendo's popular Wii Fit package. Trading in dodge balls for Balance Boards, several different schools received free bundles from Nintendo, but Lori Rose Benson, head of the Department of Education's Office of Fitness and Health Education, admits she wasn't on board at first. It didn't take her long to get with the program, however, as she realized that "students learn in lots of different ways and that we can engage students in physical activity through gaming and through interactive techniques," which is really what's important. Well, that and making sure you block all of those soccer balls.

A GoNintendo reader by the name of Maxemillian_X recently snapped a picture of an upcoming release list from an Amsterdam-based gaming retailer which reveals two interesting pieces of Wii news. The first (and somewhat more reasonable) item is a supposed July 10 release date for the Wii Sports Resort and Wii MotionPlus bundle, as well as the standalone MotionPlus peripheral.

The second eye catching release date on the list is for Wii Fit Plus, which is apparently due out November 19, giving us plenty of time to find out what the hell it is. Given the pictured release list's dubious origins (we don't know what store it came from), we're taking it with a healthy dose of trepidation. Still, a summer release for Wii Sports Resort and a follow up to Nintendo's exergaming cash cow don't seem beyond the realm of possibilities.

As if convincing more people to buy Wii Fit than Halo 3 wasn't a big enough gag already, it looks like Nintendo's Balance Board has yet another yuk up its sleeve. If it had sleeves, anyway. Those who fire up Wii Fit today will be greeted with the April Fools' Day joke featured in the video above.

"Joke" might be too strong a word, actually. It's not really ha-ha funny so much as it's "Mom-would-like-this" funny. Of course, given Wii Fit's demographic, that might be the point ...

This ain't your dad's Punch-Out! No, with Balance Board support, it'll be your mom's Punch-Out!

The Italian Nintendo site leaked details on the various control schemes found in the upcoming Wii-make of Nintendo's classic boxing game. The first two modes are as-expected: play with the Wii Remote and Nunchuck to recreate the physical motion of boxing, or play with the Remote on its side to play it NES-style. The third mode documented takes advantage of the Wii Fit Balance Board, allowing players to dodge attacks by shifting their weight. Coupled with the Wii Remote and Nunchuck, this mode should provide quite a workout.

[Via IGN]