Scheduled (sort of) maintenance is set for the server for the times between late night / early morning Thursday (7/3/2009 - tonight) through Friday (7/4/2009) between 01:00 and 04:00 CDT (07:00 - 10:00 GMT) - the server will be OFFLINE.
this is to address any hardware issues that may or may not be causing the server slow downs.

Also another scheduled downtime will follow after the USA holiday, times and dates TBA, to make some adjustments to the database server. (to increase the db server's speed)

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.

Famitsu has reported the hardware sales for Japan during the duration of June 15th through the 21st. Not much has changed on the hardware front since last week, but software is booming for the Nintendo DS.

The PSP's latest release Fate/Unlimited Codes from Capcom starts off strong with a solid 32,000 sales. Kingdom Hearts for the DS has stuck arond and continues to climb into high sales.

Japanese Software Sales: 06/15 - 06/21

01. [NDS] Tomodachi Collection (Nintendo) - 100,000 / NEW
02. [PSP] Fate/Unlimited Codes Portable (Capcom) - 32,000 / NEW
03. [NDS] Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days (Square Enix) - 30,000 / 440,000
04. [PSP] Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G, PSP the Best (Capcom) - 14,000 / 782,000
05. [WII] Wii Fit (Nintendo) - 12,000 / 3,422,000
06. [NDS] Sloane to MacHale no Nazo no Monogatari (Level 5) - 11,000 / 129,000
07. [NDS] Tago Akira no Atama no Taisou Dai-1-Shuu: Nazotoki Sekai Isshuu Ryokou (Level 5) - 10,000 / NEW
08. [NDS] Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth (Gyakuten Kenji) (Capcom) - 8,700 / 261,000
09. [PS3] Dynasty Warriors 6 Empires (Shin Sangoku Musou) (Koei) - 7,600 / 123,000
10. [NDS] Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Sky (Pokemon) - 6,600 / 352,000

More.. 

The official Game Critics Best of E3 2009 award nominee list has been released, with Brutal Legend and Uncharted 2 punctuating EA and Sony's nomination domination.

Both EA's Brutal Legend and Sony Computer Entertainment's Uncharted 2: Among Thieves rise to the top of this year's nomination list, both scoring four each including the coveted Best of Show award, where they are doing battle with Mass Effect 2, Modern Warfare 2, and Splinter Cell Conviction. Not that Brutal Legend is the only original game among the Best of Show nominees, so the next time you hear a game critic complaining about there being too many sequels, feel free to point them right here.

The nominations for Brutal Legend and Uncharted 2 help move EA and Sony to the top of the pack publisher-wise, with 18 and 13 nominations respectively. From a console standpoint, the Xbox 360 comes out on top with 42 nominations to the PlayStation 3's 39, with the Wii bringing up the rear with only 8. No real surprise there.

Due to some traffic issues and a small DDoS attack against our servers, we have decided to help limit traffic to one of the affected servers by temporarily disabling the PPN Top 50 Site.. by re-directing its traffic to Google.

For the time being, it'll stay redirected - but once this attack ceases, We'll bring it back up. For those that joined the topsites, leave your code up (or comment it out) as nothing will change once we're live again and you'll need your link code to keep your rank.

We'll release more info and updates as they become available.  Thanks everyone for your understanding during this madness.

UPDATE 21 June, 2009: we will be moving the topsite do a seperate / different server and enable the site soon.. stay tuned.

Media Create has released the Japanese software/hardware sales charts for May 25th through May 31st and it looks like the new Kingdom Hearts game for the Nintendo DS topped charts. The top ten was full of new, including Gyakuten Kenji and... HAWX?

While robust sales for Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days likely won't surprise purveyors of Japanese gaming tastes, a top ten appearance from Tom Clancy's HAWX might. But at least it gives owners of the Ace Edge flight stick something else to play. The Ubisoft game was just one of eight new releases to score a top ten spot, joining Shin Sangoku Musou 5 Empires as one of two PlayStation 3 games to crack the top third of this week's chart.

Here is a fullsized wallpaper for the upcoming Call of Duty title, Modern Warfare 2.

This image is 1680 x 1050 pixels (you can resize if you need smaller)

Image was created by PPN Studio from a screengrab, and is copyright 2009 PPN.

Modern Warfare 2 is copyright 2009 by Infinity Ward, Activision.

Here's a blow-by-blow account of the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 demo shown in today's E3 by Microsoft (X-Box) in REVERSE order. Enjoy!

• Posted 10:58 PST

  Lights come up, and Schappert reveals two Modern Warfare 2 map packs will come to Xbox Live first.

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While BioWare's Mass Effect didn't score top placement in this week's Japanese software sales chart—Sloane to MacHale: Nazo no Monogatari did—it had a pretty damn good showing, considering the platform's last place position.

Mass Effect's first week sales were a solid, if not spectacular 18,000, making it the third bestselling game in Japan, according to Media Create. It placed well behind Level 5's new Nintendo DS puzzler Sloane to MacHale: Nazo no Monogatari and Sega's baseball sim Pro Yakyuu Team o Tsukurou! 2 but still good for a Western role-playing game.

The top ten is DS heavy, with a few new releases peppered throughout the top thirty. Looks like Nintendo's own Takt of Magic for the Wii is off to an un-magical start.

01. Sloane to MacHale: Nazo no Monogatari (DS) - 44,000 / NEW
02. Pro Yakyuu Team o Tsukurou! 2 (DS) - 39,000 / NEW
03. Mass Effect (Xbox 360) - 18,000 / NEW
04. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (the Best) (PSP) - 14,000 / 693,000
05. Bleach: Heat The Soul 6 (PSP) - 13,000 / 54,000
06. Dragon Ball Z: Story Saiyajin Raishuu (DS) - 12,000 / 148,000
07. Pokémon Fushigi no Dungeon: Sora no Tankenta (DS) - 12,000 / 311,000
08. Made in Ore (DS) - 11,000 / 123,000
09. Wii Fit (Wii) - 10,000 / 3,424,000
10. Mario & Luigi RPG3!!! (DS) - 9,000 / 624,000

more after the break..

With Empire: Total War nowhere to be seen on Direct2Drive's charts, there's only a single game that made the top 10 across all three outlets over the past few weeks. And it was Fallout 3!

Yes, Bethesda's RPG soldiers on, with more and more gamers each week drawn into its tale of post-apocalyptic intrigue and rat punching. Who knows. One day, it may stop inexplicably crashing and actually work on my PC.

NPD Charts May 10-16