Wii Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games

Gaminger

Power Member
Algo que eu nunca esperava acontecer. Isto vai marcar a história!



SEGA AND NINTENDO JOIN FORCES FOR MARIO & SONIC AT THE OLYMPIC GAMES

Legendary Icons Appear Together for the First Time in Video Game History

TOKYO (March 28, 2007) – SEGA® Corporation and Nintendo Co. Ltd. today made a historical announcement that two of the biggest icons in the entertainment industry, Mario™ and Sonic™, are joining forces to star in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. Developed for the Wii™ video game system and the Nintendo DS™ system, this momentous agreement marks the first time these two renowned stars have appeared together in a game.

Published by SEGA across Europe and North America, and published by Nintendo in the Japanese market, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games will be available for Holiday 2007 and is licensed through a worldwide partnership with International Sports Multimedia (ISM), the exclusive interactive entertainment software licensee of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

In Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, players will compete in events that take place in environments based on the official venues of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Using a supporting cast of characters from the amazing worlds of both Mario and Sonic, gamers will be able to compete as or against a range of lovable personalities including Mario, Sonic, Luigi™, Knuckles™, Yoshi®, Tails™ and more. Innovative usage of the Wii and DS control systems to maneuver a favorite character will allow players to race the likes of Mario and Sonic down the 100m track, engage in exhilarating rallies in table tennis and churn water in a swimming heat, all while competing for the much sought after gold medal.

“We are thrilled to partner with Nintendo and ISM on this groundbreaking title,” said Hisao Oguchi, President and Chief Operating Officer, SEGA Corporation. “For the first time, two of the world’s greatest games’ characters come together to compete in the world’s greatest sporting event and we couldn’t be more excited.”

“Mario and Sonic have been respectful rivals since the early days of video games,” says Shigeru Miyamoto, Senior Managing Director and General Manager, Entertainment Analysis and Development Division, Nintendo Co., Ltd.. “In fact, for a long time they have been discussing the possibility of one day competing against each other. Now that they have been given the perfect opportunity to meet at the Olympic Games, we may finally learn who is actually faster, Mario or Sonic?”

“The Olympic Games represent the true spirit of competition and passion,” said Raymond Goldsmith, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of ISM. “Bringing together intensely competitive and fun characters like Mario and Sonic in an Olympic setting helps showcase the sports of the Olympic Games in a new and compelling way for all generations.”

For further information on this title please visit www.sega-press.com for Europe and the SEGA FTP for America at: http://segapr.segaamerica.com.

Press release: Isto comprova.

Parece que faz mesmo bastante sentido o Sonic entrar no SSBB segundo isto.
 
Sonic e Mario nos 100metros...quem irá ganhar? lol!
O ouriço azul mais rápido do mundo ou o famoso canalizador gorducho esmagador de tijolos? Eu chamaria a atenção do comité olimpico para ficar de olho no Mario, é que aqueles cogumelos mágicos que ele consome...não sei não...cheira-me a doping.

Excelente noticia :D
 
Sonic e Mario nos 100metros...quem irá ganhar? lol!
O ouriço azul mais rápido do mundo ou o famoso canalizador gorducho esmagador de tijolos? Eu chamaria a atenção do comité olimpico para ficar de olho no Mario, é que aqueles cogumelos mágicos que ele consome...não sei não...cheira-me a doping.

Excelente noticia :D

loool eh bem visto!

Mario e Sonic juntos.. Parece me bem! Só falta saber se o jogo é bom, isso eh que interessa :P
 
Por esta não esperava eu, sabia que vinha aí o Beijing 2008 mas pensava que era simplesmente banal; enganei-me.

Mas de facto se eu fosse a Nintendo aproveitava esta cooperação para meter o Sonic no Super Smash Bros.

Quanto ao jogo... sabemos muito pouco... mas de facto e como foi dito... acho que o Super Mário já deve ter andado a esconder uns cogumelos e umas estrelas da invencibilidade pela pista...
 
Fico decepcionado por saber que a estreia destes 2 num jogo é no Olympic Games!!!

Acho que no SSB seria o ideal ou se fizessem uma história marada estilo Kingdom Hearts com os 2 mundos à mistura.
 
Sonic e companhia no SSBB era mesmo perfeito :)
Duelos Mario contra Sonic!

Usando ataques parecidos com os que as personagens actuais têm, o Sonic encaixava muito bem no jogo.
 
Djizas Craist! Hahahaha! Só isto já pode prenunciar muita coisa boa a acontecer, tipo jogos
onde o Mario e Sonic entram.

A SEGA trata bem da sua ex-rival... Muito fair play naqueles lados.
 
Offtopic: Sonic e Mario no Super Smash Bros. não sei se seria o ideal...o Sonic tem características que não se inserem muito bem num beat'em up. Vamos a ver, qual é a característica que mais nos salta à vista no Sonic? Ora pois, agora digam lá se ele não está melhor num jogo centrado no atletismo do que num beat'em up?
 
Fico decepcionado por saber que a estreia destes 2 num jogo é no Olympic Games!!!

Acho que no SSB seria o ideal ou se fizessem uma história marada estilo Kingdom Hearts com os 2 mundos à mistura.

Lol, não sei se estiveste atento aos rumores mas diz-se estar a ser desenvolvida a sequela de Kingdom Hearts, talvez até vá ser exclusivo da Wii, e provávelmente também vão entrar personagens do mundo do Super Mario... o Sonic não entra mas... xD.
 
Isto é uma excelente notícia! Sinal de tempos de mudança no mundo dos VG...
Agora só falta a noticia pela qual todos ansiamos... Sonic no SSB!! :)
 
Lol, não sei se estiveste atento aos rumores mas diz-se estar a ser desenvolvida a sequela de Kingdom Hearts, talvez até vá ser exclusivo da Wii, e provávelmente também vão entrar personagens do mundo do Super Mario... o Sonic não entra mas... xD.
Isso era uma partida de 1 de Abril da EGM... o Mushroom Kingdom Hearts...

Era muito bom se acontecesse, mas não faz dele provável (até porque seria uma combinação mirabolante).

É desconhecido se essa equipa está a fazer algum Kingdom Hearts novo, o que sabemos é que acabaram agora de fazer o Kingdom Hearts 2: Final Cut com o remake do Chain of Memories do GBA para PS2 (gráficos 3D) que está prestes a sair no Japão (amanhã, dia 29 de Março).

De resto sabemos que estão a fazer o It's a Wonderful World para a DS e que hoje falaram que estavam a fazer um jogo com a disney que não o Kingdom Hearts 3:

Tetsuya Nomura: New Disney game is not Kingdom Hearts 3

28.03.07 - Tetsuya Nomura from Square Enix said in the Famitsu that concerning their new Disney game, which will be announced shortly will not be Kingdom Hearts 3.
Fonte: www.gamefront.de

O ano passado falaram da possibilidade de "múltiplos projectos de Kingdom Hearts a virem" a confirmar-se (e a não terem sido cancelados ou outsourced) podemos supor que algum deles vai cair na Wii, mas nem sabemos se será um principal ou um spin-off, se é que está a ser feito, a square pode estar à espera para decidir.


__________________

EDIT:
Gaming rivals team up

Mario the plumber and Sonic the Hedgehog, rivals in the video game world for two decades, will team up for the first time in a game based on the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, due in stores this holiday season for Nintendo's Wii console and DS handheld system (prices not yet set), will also include other popular characters such as Luigi and Yoshi (from Nintendo's Mario games), as well as Knuckles and Tails (from the Sonic games), all competing in such summer Olympic events as running, swimming and table tennis.

"This is something we've been talking about for two to three years now but never really had quite the right opportunity," says Simon Jeffery of Sega, which secured video game licenses for the upcoming summer games. "With (that), we started thinking of some way to take advantage of the Wii and DS, and then magic happened."

Rumors of a Mario-Sonic collaboration have been around since Sega quit making video game consoles itself in 2001. Back in 1991, Sega's release of Sonic the Hedgehog provided a much-needed power boost to the Sega Genesis system, then in hot combat with Nintendo.

By that time, Mario was well on his way to appearing in nearly 100 games and selling more than 193 million video games. He first appeared as "Jumpman" in 1981 in the arcade game Donkey Kong. Then in 1985, the game Super Mario Bros. helped fuel the success of the Nintendo Entertainment System and became the top-selling game of all time (40 million worldwide; some came bundled with the NES). That game is credited with helping the video game industry's resurgence after its crash several years earlier.

To catch the attention of the Sega Genesis' target market, a slightly older, edgier consumer, Sega's designers created Sonic with "attitude and speed, to kick things up a notch in the video game character wars," Jeffery says. Eventually, Sonic games sold more than 44 million worldwide and the character appeared in an animated TV series and comic books (Mario also had his own TV series for a time, and a 1993 live-action movie starring Bob Hoskins and Dennis Hopper bombed).

The new Olympics game, to be designed by Sega with oversight by Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto, will make unique use of the Wii's motion-sensitive controller. "It's going to be very interactive and fairly physical," says Jeffery, adding that more will be revealed in coming months.

Nintendo's Perrin Kaplan says the gameplay will involve "something that has not yet been imagined on Wii and DS."

This Nintendo-Sega collaboration is another coup for Nintendo, which has strengthened its hold on the handheld game market with the dual-screened DS and so far outdueled Sony's PlayStation 3 with the Wii.

At Wedbush Morgan Securities, Michael Pachter calls the game "a pretty big announcement" in that the two companies are teaming up on the game and Nintendo is sharing its intellectual property. "You are looking at a genre-widening partnership."
Fonte: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/gaming/2007-03-28-mario-sonic_N.htm
 
Última edição:
Mamma mia! :009: :wah:

Algo inimaginável há 15 anos atrás. Tendo em conta que vai ser um jogo muito importante, a equipa que o desenvolver vai estar muito aplicada nesta sua tarefa, a expectativa vai ser enorme!
 
Q&A: George Harrison and Simon Jeffery on the Mario/Sonic Deal

Nintendo and Sega are just buddy-buddy these days. And apparently Mario and Sonic are too. We spoke with Sega of America President Simon Jeffery and Nintendo VP of Marketing George Harrison to find out what the landmark pairing will do for their businesses.

Following the exciting news that Sega and Nintendo are partnering to develop the first game ever to feature both Mario and Sonic, GameDaily BIZ had the opportunity to chat with Sega of America President Simon Jeffery and Nintendo of America senior VP of marketing George Harrison about what this means for their respective companies and for Mario and Sonic, of course.


GameDaily BIZ: Should we take this as a sign that Nintendo and Sega will be working together more and more in the future? Is this a budding relationship?

Simon Jeffery: At this point we wouldn't rule anything out, but there's nothing else in the pipe that we're ready to talk about right now. We're absolutely thrilled that Nintendo and Sega are working together on a project of this magnitude, and that's quite sufficient for the time being, we think.

George Harrison: We've come a long way from the intense, but productive competition of the '90s to this point, and I think it's very encouraging – two great franchise characters, and the involvement of Mr. Miyamoto to provide his advice and counsel. So I think the success of this will help map out their future.

BIZ: Mario and Sonic obviously have a lot of nostalgic appeal to gamers in my generation, but do you think this team up matters as much to the younger generation that didn't grow up with these characters on the early Nintendo and Sega platforms? Will it resonate with the younger crowd?

SJ: Absolutely, very much so. We fully believe that one of the reasons that both Mario and Sonic have had such incredible longevity in the marketplace is that they have this wide-ranging appeal. And kids, whenever they start playing games when they're very young, at 5 or 6 these days, instantly gravitate towards these two characters. And we're certainly seeing with recent Sonic games... there's the TV cartoon that's still running and recent Sonic games have very quickly found an audience with young kids. So we totally believe that as well as lapsed gamers and existing gamers who have been asking for a game like this for such a long time, we think kids who have found both characters will immediately gravitate towards this game.

GH: I think the history of our industry shows that there are probably no two characters that have had this kind of longevity, and part of that is just the continuing reintroduction of these characters, Sonic and Mario, to new gamers as they enter [gaming], whether it's through a handheld system or through a console. And we've been more successful than probably any other publishers in the industry at doing this over the years.

BIZ: Olympics-based titles have historically not been very good and have not sold all that well. The choice of genre for this Mario and Sonic team up seems strange. Why the Olympics?

SJ: Well, in some ways you've answered the question there, because Nintendo and Sega have been getting on pretty well for a few years now and Sonic games have done very well on the Nintendo platforms recently, like GameCube, GBA and DS. So we've been looking for some commonality between the publishers/companies that we would be able to bring these two characters together, and we felt the Olympics was the perfect event, a perfect environment to do that. Olympics games have pretty much had the same gameplay mechanism since the beginning of the video game days. The games that really stand out as fun and family oriented are like the Epyx Summer Games and Winter Games, and we felt that having a lot of that more fun, family oriented gameplay would be perfect for bringing Sonic and Mario together in an Olympics environment. The game will play very differently from those traditional, standard Olympics style games, and we think that will open up whole new areas of sports on the Wii and the DS that will take advantage of both the gameplay styles of the Sonic games and the Mario games as well.

BIZ: Is this partnership perhaps an indicator that we might indeed see Sonic make an appearance in the upcoming Wii title Super Smash Bros. Brawl?

GH: We can't really comment on any sort of hidden characters in Smash Bros. at this point. Simon did reference that we've had a growing cooperation and respect over the last few years, and I think each success builds on itself. So we expect this game to be very successful. I am a little concerned about Sonic's speed when he's racing Mario in a footrace, so we'll have to see how we can equalize that.

BIZ: Yuji Naka is obviously involved with his own projects at Prope studio, but as the creator of Sonic was he consulted at all about this move? Does it have his blessing?

SJ: Yuji Naka's first games with Prope are being done in conjunction with Sega and he's still a very good friend of the family. He hasn't actually been actively involved in the development of this game, but he was fully aware of the discussions going up to it and it absolutely has his blessing.

BIZ: And how much involvement will Miyamoto have in the daily development process? How much is he steering the project?

SJ: The game itself is absolutely being built as a joint venture between Nintendo and Sega. The predominant game development is being done by Sega's sports team and with a fair amount of help from outside companies, and also from Nintendo themselves. Mr. Miyamoto is very heavily involved in the overall direction of the game, the gameplay mechanics, at an executive producer sort of level. He's looking at every milestone, he's giving up suggestions and directions, and Perrin Kaplan actually told us yesterday that his involvement is way more than a lot of normal Nintendo games. And his blessing is really quite a landmark for a game like this that's being built outside of Nintendo itself.

BIZ: The Sonic franchise, especially with the recent games on PS3 and 360, has sort of seen a drop off in quality over the years. The games have not been received all that well and the franchise could use a jumpstart. Do you see this team up with Mario as a way of reinvigorating Sonic or refreshing the brand?

SJ: I think that's a very fair question. The Sonic games of late... the better games have been on the Nintendo platforms. Sonic Rush on the DS last year was a really good game. Sonic and the Secret Rings on the Wii is a great game as well. It's selling really strongly and is definitely one of the Wii platform favorites at the moment. So it feels like Sonic and the Sonic games have an affinity for the Nintendo platforms anyway, and we're happy to extend that. But you're right in that Sega has been looking to reinvigorate the Sonic franchise and inject some more quality into the games going forward. And we feel this is a great opportunity to work with Nintendo to do that.

BIZ: And in terms of the "innovate usage" of controls, how do you avoid that mini-game syndrome that a lot of Wii games have at the moment, where it's fun for a little bit but then the gamer gets bored?

SJ: I think that's one of the beauties of the Olympics; rather than just a series of mini-games thrown onto a disc together, this is a series of events with a cast of characters, not just Sonic and Mario, that have their own specialties and traits and strengths and weaknesses. There's far more of a competitive Olympian feel to the game than just playing one-off. So gamers will be driven once they finish one event and are successful in it to move to the next event on a competitive basis.

BIZ: Finally, how does this move to team up Sonic and Mario fit in with your companies' respective strategies for the video game industry going forward?

GH: I think on the behalf on Nintendo, certainly we're a lot more open to any variety of possibilities than we were a decade ago when we believed that everything we needed to do we could do internally. And so, opening our minds to what consumers might be interested in and what really strong partnerships might be possible is what has led us down the path of working more closely with Sega.

SJ: And from Sega's perspective, it's a brave new world. We think the video game industry is probably at its most exciting point in its entire history and collaborations like this are what is going to drive the industry forward and open it up to more people. We believe we want the market to be as wide and as mass as humanly possible. One of the fun things about this industry is it does still feel new; it does still feel fresh. And there is the opportunity to innovate and invigorate like this partnership is doing.

BIZ: Do you think a title like this might be more appealing in certain regions of the world, or is it fairly global?

SJ: Absolutely global. That's one of the beauties of this relationship, that Sega and Nintendo have strength in every one of those territories right around the world and so do these two iconic game characters. There's no one region in the world where they're stronger or weaker; they're strongly, 100 percent recognized everywhere.

GH: And the Olympics themselves are really a worldwide phenomenon that should be able to draw traffic and interest even in some of our smaller countries in Europe and other places.

BIZ: But what about the fact that the Olympics don't exactly get huge TV ratings here in America? Will that affect interest in the game?

SJ: Not at all. The Olympics is a perfect setting for this game because it's not a sports sim. It's a fun, family interactive product.

GH: Millions of families still watch the Olympics, so there's still a huge audience based on the Olympic interest.
Fonte: http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/feature/?id=15630&ncid=AOLGAM000500000000028
 
Matt Casamassina, o editor chefe do site IGN Wii, atualizou hoje o seu blog com comentários sobre o jogo Mario & Sonic at the Olympics, anunciado hoje mais cedo pela Sega e pela Nintendo. De acordo com ele, "esse é um dos jogos que mencionei há algumas semanas em um post no meu blog. Um dos projetos grandes que estavam a caminho do Wii". "Mas nao se preocupem, coisas muito maiores estão por vir", completou.

Seguindo com o post, ele diz que ficou extremamente surpreso com a reação ruim de alguns gamers em fóruns de discussão ao redor da internet. De acordo com ele, parece que perdemos a importância do projeto: a Sega e a Nintendo estão trabalhando juntas em um jogo. "Wii Sports + Olimpíadas + Mario + Sonic + online. O quê falta?", disse Matt, dando ênfase ao termo "online", função que não tinha sido comentada no anúncio das empresas. Além disso, ele também disse que não tem dúvidas de que, depois desse anúncio, Sonic será anunciado em breve como um dos personagens de Super Smash Bros. Brawl.


Fonte: Wii Brasil

Hmmm, vejo ali Online :D (Não sei se isto está ali nos posts do I_Eat_All, mas são 3 da manha e não me apetece ler :P )

Mas, vistas as coisas como ali, realmente parece bom...:D
 
Hmmm, vejo ali Online :D (Não sei se isto está ali nos posts do I_Eat_All, mas são 3 da manha e não me apetece ler :P )
Não há nada de online para cima, IGN foi mesmo o primeiro a falar dele. :)

Mais entrevistas:

Perrin, you asked me a question.

Perrin Kaplan:
Yeah. What was your reaction?

I didn't know what to expect, because I didn't know what the announcement was going to be.

Kaplan:
Right.

I thought it was interesting, but it made me curious to find out more. But obviously it's significant, so that's why I said, hey, I'll jump on the call and find out what's going on.

Kaplan:
Right, right. You know fans have been asking for it for years. This is the right time with the right hardware. Simon can speak to that, about the innovation really coming into play. It's for DS and the Wii.

When did the very first talks begin between Nintendo and Sega to bring Mario and Sonic together in a game?

Simon Jeffery:
The very first talks? Probably actually happened while Sega was still in the hardware business. Because of the rivalry between the two companies at the time, that was rather fanciful. But when Sega abdicated the hardware business, it was something that just began to make more and more sense, and it was really a case of finding the right commonality that would work for both companies, and that commonality happened to be the Olympic Games, the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

Were Sonic and Mario the only characters on the table, or were there others that you were thinking of bringing together? Maybe Panzer Dragoon with Metroid, or Virtua Fighter with Super Smash Bros?

Jeffery:
Because both companies have such iconic mascots--when people like Ziff-Davis do their gamer research, it's fairly consistent that Mario and Sonic will come out number one and number two as the most favored icons of the videogame industry. So it was just very logical from both of our perspectives to pursue a partnership between those two characters.

Why does Mario get top billing over Sonic?

Jeffery:
Perrin, do you want to take that one?

Jeffery: Sega's being respectful. Mario is older than Sonic, and we'd like to give the old man some respect by letting him go first.

Kaplan: Here's the bottom line: He's Italian, he's really sexy, and he can get more women than Sonic.

If you had to describe the relationship between the two in sports terms, would we be talking about Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant, or Shaquille O'Neal and Dwyane Wade?

Kaplan:
Oh, man. Simon, you've got to do that.

Jeffery: I'd say Shaquille O'Neal for Sonic and Larry Bird for Mario, because he's so old.

A lot of reviewers in the gaming press have been fairly critical lately of the quality of the Sonic games. A number of things have been written asking if Sonic is past his prime, is he over, does he need to be rebooted. Who's developing the game, and what kind of promises can you make to gamers who may feel a bit burned by the quality of recent Sonic releases?

Jeffery:
I think that's a fair question. If you look at recent Sonic games, the games that have actually had the best quality have been those that have been on the Nintendo platforms. Sonic and the Secret Rings on the Wii has actually reviewed well and is selling very well. Sonic Rush on the DS reviewed extremely well; I think it averaged in the 80s, and likewise has done extremely well. So we think that Sonic has always had this affinity for the Nintendo platforms and the Nintendo demographic.

The game itself is being built as a collaboration between Sega and Nintendo. It's being built predominantly by Sega's sports team, rather than Sonic Team. [Note: We asked Sega PR whether the company's AM2 studio was making the game. The answer was no, that it's a separate team that they aren't currently identifying.] We wanted to bring some fresh air in. But there's very heavy involvement from Nintendo, and we're honored that Miyamoto-san himself is actually very closely involved, is looking at every milestone, is involved in the strategic direction for the game. So this isn't another game that's being built by the Sonic Team. It's something that's a collaboration between Nintendo and Sega.

Separately, is there a plan to revitalize Sonic on other platforms? Or is this a sign that it just makes more sense in the future to focus Sonic on Nintendo platforms where the product quality has been good and where there may be more audience affinity?

Jeffery:
We are actually undergoing a fairly considerable refresh of Sonic as an intellectual property, as a character. Sonic on the Wii is probably the first product that's come to market that reflects that. We're not going to be bringing another game out on the other platforms for quite some time, because we feel that it is time to reinvent Sonic, to make Sonic contemporary again. At the same time, even the recent 360 and Playstation 3 games have sold extremely well. Sonic is still an extremely endearing character; there's still a lot of love for Sonic out there in consumerland.

Is there anything you can say about the nature of the gameplay at this time?

Jeffery:
Perrin, do you want to take that one, or should I?

Kaplan: Well, I think we're both going to talk about innovation. I like how you've been describing some of the different things you can do, it not being a typical sports title. So why don't you amplify on that.

Jeffery: [Laughs] OK. As Perrin just said, it's not a typical sports title. We feel that Olympics games in the past have all pretty much been the same kind of game, the standard track & field gameplay mechanic. The opportunity to introduce two characters like Mario and Sonic into an Olympic game really presents a bunch of opportunities and a bunch of challenges. There obviously will be multiple sporting events within the game itself. But the main premise is fun, interaction and using the control mechanisms of both the Wii and the DS in unique and fun ways. We don't want the game to feel like just an iteration of Wii Sports. We want the game to really feel unique, like it is an Olympic event, and that it's making most of the gameplay styles of both the Sonic games and the Mario games.

How unique are you planning to get with the sports? Are you guys looking at synchronized swimming, rhythmic gymnastics, equestrian? How broad are you going to go with this?

Jeffery:
We are going to go pretty broad. The ones we're talking about right now--or the ones we're announcing so far--are 100-meter track, table tennis and swimming. To your point, all of those are very different, very diverse gameplay styles, and that's really the main premise of the game. We want them to be a whole bunch of unique gameplay and interface mechanics that players will go through when they're playing the game, whether on Wii or the DS.

How did you decide which company would get which territories?

Jeffery:
That's a good question.

Kaplan: Ask that question again. I want to make sure I understand what you're asking.

How did you decide which company would get which territories, as far as publishing? And is the nature of this venture that it's published in Japan by Nintendo, in North America and Europe by Sega, but the revenues are being pooled and divided up equally? How does it work?

Jeffery:
Well, we can't talk specifically about how the revenue is dealt out at the end of the day, I'm afraid. With regards to the territories, it was really just something that was part of the basis of the conversations from day one. We felt that because it is a true joint venture, there needed to be some kind of territory split-up. But there wasn't any hard-and-fast rule of thumb that was applied. It was something that was chatted out between the two companies and decided that this was probably the best approach for now.

Kaplan: I think having Miyamoto also involved hopefully communicates clearly to folks what a priority this is that these two franchises are together, what the game's potential is and him working with Sega's development team. In addition to whatever the business relationship is per region that the game is a priority.

Right, but at the same time, the way it's generally portrayed, at least publicly, is that Miyamoto works in some capacity on all the games that come out of Nintendo. So how should gamers look at this announcement in terms of where this sits on his priority list?

Kaplan:
Well, I have to say that while, yes, Miyamoto does touch a lot of the products, it varies in terms of how much time he spends. The fact that we're very publicly stating his involvement means that he will have more involvement than sort of the average game. It's definitely something he will spend time with.

Jeffery: Also, the fact that this isn't a Nintendo game--it's a Sega and Nintendo game--to have Miyamoto's involvement at this level is unprecedented.

Lastly, you talked about the past rivalry between Sega and Nintendo. Perrin, did Sega have to apologize for its "Sega Does What Nintendon't" advertising slogan in order for this deal to go through?

Kaplan:
I've been quoted saying that there's a thin line between love and hate. Now we're in love. And so I think when you are in love, you are very forgiving. We worked as competitors, and we always had the attitude of kicking Sonic's behind. Now we're willing to be together.
Kaplan: I guess I don't know that I would necessarily call it top billing. People have such great love for both characters. Mario is very logical for our systems and people commonly see that on our systems. I guess you could say top billing, but I think people will find that there are ways to use the characters together on a team or against each other in the game. I think of it more as a friendship or a rivalry depending on how someone wants to play. If their main guy is Mario, and they really dig him, they can make him be as powerful as they want. Same with Sonic.
Fonte: http://ncroal.talk.newsweek.com/default.asp?item=546590

Next-Gen: Did this deal stem from Sega’s agreement with the International Olympic Committee? Did Sega just kind of call up Nintendo and say, “We’ve got a license, you want in on this?”

Jeffery:
We have actually been discussing ways of working together with Nintendo for several years. It was hard to find some common ground because the gameplay styles and environments of Mario and Sonic are actually quite different. So when we signed the Olympics deal a little over a year ago, we suddenly realized that we had some common ground, some commonality. We have a situation where the two characters could meet and compete and it made all the sense to both parties to move out.

Next-Gen: What’s the trick to keeping mascots relevant as the characters’ original audiences get older?

Harrison:
I think it’s something that both Nintendo and Sega have been good at over the years. I mean, every year millions of new gamers arrive into our industry when they’re six, seven, eight, nine years old, and we’ve had to continuously reinvent our main franchise characters to appeal to them. There are probably no more two adoring characters in the industry than Sonic and Mario.

Jeffery: If you think back to the years of Genesis and the Super Nintendo, think how many critter games were on those platforms at that time. They’ve all pretty much fallen by the wayside. Some new guys have come along like Crash and Ratchet and Clank, but in terms of longevity, Sonic and Mario are the only characters that have survived that long.

Next-Gen: Some people see this as burying the hatchet between Nintendo and Sega, but has there really been much of a hatchet left to bury in recent years?

Harrison:
I don’t think that there ever was a hatchet. There was certainly spirited competition when we were both in the hardware business but at that time there was certainly mutual respect. For someone to create a character like Sonic that had that kind of popularity or appeal, you couldn’t dismiss it. There was always mutual creative respect that has led us to come closer together over the last several years.

Next-Gen: Simon, what’s going on with Sonic? Sales seem to have been holding up for the franchise but the PS3 and 360 versions of Sonic the Hedgehog were critically panned. Sonic for Wii was fun, but how does Sega intend to save its mascot from bad games?

Jeffery: Yeah, that’s a fair question. We have actually for a couple years now been looking quite deeply into the character and longevity. Part of the reason for the longevity is just the initial character design itself. When Sonic was designed it wasn’t just done on the back of an envelope. Sonic’s character was designed to have attitude and depth and speed, all of which I can honestly say are very important.

The reason that Sonic is still selling well is because the character itself still appeals especially to those kids who come into gaming every year like George was talking about. Sega has been looking at Sonic and the Sonic franchise quite heavily and seriously, figuring out what we can do to improve the quality of games overall. The games tended to be fairly good quality on the Nintendo systems the last few years, like Sonic on the Wii but also Sonic Rush on the DS, which came out last year. It’s a great game.

The franchise has been gravitating well towards the Nintendo platforms and a game like [Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games] is a natural progression as we move towards reinventing and reaffirming Sonic as a brand.

Next-Gen: This will be a Wii and DS game. Were those platforms targeted because of the younger crowd that is attracted to those systems?

Jeffery:
Well we think younger crowd yes, but I think another way of looking at it is wider crowd. We think that both of those systems are really appealing to a wide market, to lax gamers who have kind of got bored with gaming over the last few years. Those are the Genesis and SNES players who are familiar with both of these characters, but the interactivity of both those hardware systems from Nintendo just makes gaming cool and exciting again. That’s bringing back the lax gamer market again.

Next-Gen: George, what would you say to people who accuse Nintendo of overusing its well-known cast of characters in such a large amount of its games?

Harrison: I’d say take a look at our financial statements. I mean, popularity and appeal are not something that you want to walk away from, simply. It’d be like saying to Disney, “You shouldn’t do so much with Mickey Mouse.” It makes no sense. What we do have to do is be careful to cultivate the use of the character and not use it in ways that are inappropriate, make sure every game is as good and enjoyable as consumers expect when they see a Mario game. We feel that’s certainly the case as we come together with Sega to put both Sonic and Mario into a game.
Fonte: http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5054&Itemid=2
 
Comic:

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Fonte: http://fanboys-online.com/comic.php?cid=165
 
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