With adored icons and fun game play, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games has shot to the top of the sales charts and is clearly resonating with the growing audience of casual gamers that want an engaging and accessible gaming experience. The market for entertaining games that everyone can enjoy is growing faster than any other segment in the industry, thanks in part to the explosive popularity of Wii and Nintendo DS. A key element of our growth strategy at Sega is to develop and publish games that appeal to this expanding market.”“(Will Mario and Sonic team up again?) There’s no concrete answer to that at this time. Obviously the first one has done fantastically well. The game is based on the Olympics and that’s still a good four months away, so this game is going to be out there and selling for a long, long time yet. I think we’ll take a look at it after that.”“(What’s next for Sega and Nintendo?) “We still have this great relationship and if anything, it’s been solidified and cemented by the success of Mario & Sonic. For both parties it reaffirms what we’ve been talking about for years, which is that collaboration would be a great, great thing. So we want to see how [the game] does throughout the rest of the year and through the Olympics timeframe in the summer. We really want it to be one of the biggest selling games of 2008.”

I actually kind of enjoy this game, it is not that bad, but 5 million copies! Wow, way to go Sega/Nintendo. Could we be seeing some more of the Sonic and Mario duo later on?

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Mario & Sonic at the Olympic GamesTM Hits 5 Million in Global Sales

TOKYO-SEGA® Corporation today announced that its history-making video game title, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games™, has sold five million copies worldwide in just over three months. Developed by SEGA for the Wii™ video game system and the Nintendo DS™ system, with creative input and executive milestone approvals by Nintendo’s developers, the title brought together for the first time the two most beloved icons in the entertainment industry. In the spirit of the Olympic Games, the legendary mascots also brought friends from their storied franchises along, including Luigi™, Knuckles™, Yoshi® and Tails™, to compete in a variety of Olympic events.

“With adored icons and fun game play, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games has shot to the top of the sales charts and is clearly resonating with the growing audience of casual gamers that want an engaging and accessible gaming experience,” said Simon Jeffery, President and COO, SEGA of America.

Published by SEGA across Europe and North America, and by Nintendo in Japan, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games made its worldwide debut on November 6, 2007, when the Wii version hit store shelves in the United States. According to the NPD Group, which tracks sales data in the United States, the game was one of the top-ten best-sellers in the United States – across all platforms – in the critical holiday sales month of December.

When Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games launched in Europe just days later, it was an immediate hit, rising rapidly to the top of sales charts. Mario & Sonic became the best-ever performing Wii game over the seven-day period that ended on December 11, 2007. In January, Mario & Sonic was the best-selling video game in England across all formats.

“The market for entertaining games that everyone can enjoy is growing faster than any other segment in the industry, thanks in part to the explosive popularity of Wii and Nintendo DS,” continued Jeffery. “A key element of our growth strategy at SEGA is to develop and publish games that appeal to this expanding market.”

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games is licensed through a worldwide partnership with International Sports Multimedia (ISM), the exclusive Interactive Entertainment Software licensee of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).