Sega’s Masanao Maeda spoke the other day about the company’s expectations for the highly anticipated Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. The game, which stars Nintendo’s Mario and Sega’s Sonic characters together for the epic first time in history, is expected to sell 4 million copies worldwide. The number is likely a combination of estimated sales for the Wii and DS versions.
Sound like a lofty goal? It is. Sonic’s 1991 debut, Sonic the Hedgehog, was a huge success at the time, selling 4 million copies. Also, while Sega hasn’t set a timeframe to reach the 4 million mark with Mario & Sonic, such a total would equal 20% or an entire fifth of the games Sega sold in the last fiscal year.
If development goes well, however, and the game is as good as they’re trying to make it, Mario & Sonic could easily become the Wii Sports for this holiday season, bringing together a classic set of video game icons for some Olympic sports fun. No doubt the game will also get a huge boost next August during the Summer Olympics.
