Sega expects Olympic sales from Mario & Sonic

via joystiq

When Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games was first announced earlier this year, those of us who grew up during the 16-bit console wars were both shocked and titillated by the premise of playing a video game starring the former arch-rivals. Surely the universe had gone topsy turvy, as not since comic book's Deathmate had the world seen such a prodigious crossover.

Wacky or not, however, Sega Sammy expects big things from the forthcoming title, with the company anticipating sales of 4 million units. If accurate, this would equal nearly 20 percent of the sales of all games sold by Sega Sammy over the previous fiscal year. The prediction was made by the firm's corporate director Masanao Maeda, who interestingly did not elaborate on when he believes the games will reach this prestigious milestone.

Realistic? Given the amount of namedropping associated with this title, and that its development at Sega is being overseen by Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto, all signs points to 'possibly.' Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games hurdles to retail for both the Wii and Nintendo DS this Christmas.

I dunno if it'll sell that much

We're not in the 90's. I love the Sonic series, and the old Mario games, but that doesn't mean a game with both of them will do well. At least in a game like that.

With close to 50 million Nintendo DS sold worldwide, this would mean that around 7 or 8 percent of these owners would buy Mario/Sonic.(I think anyway). I guess it's not overly far fetched, however I won't buy it.