Since the Wii's launch Sega has gone strength to strength imo as they have been one of the few third parties that have attempted to add innovation into their games and as a result of this (according to VGChartz) have sold 15.65M units of software on the Wii. 

2009 has started no differently with Sega now having lined up for Wii owners Madworld, The Conduit, House of the dead overkill and this supposedly Wiiware New Super Mario Bros style game and a rumoured M&S at the Winter games.

If all of the above is true then this is 3 games ninty have allowed Sega to use Mario for and in return Sega seems to be raising above most of the other third parties in a league of their own (again imo) where they will push the envelope and attempt to push the hardcore games for the Wii and are quickly getting a reputation for it (you only have to read the winter online petition to see that 90% of the third party publishers named on it are Sega).

Does anyone think that perhaps Nintendo have "got into bed" with Sega and said you can use the Mario franchise for these upcoming titles if you do push the hardcore games for the Wii as Nintendo know they need both successfull third parties and diversity of mature games?

Also does anyone think this Sega Nintendo partnership will be successfull as the party, family and casual games on the Wii gets more and more flooded?

Nintendo and Sega is a super win, and totally makes the 10 year old version of me's head explode.

I don't know how close knit they are, but I believe after this year their development will gradually move closer and closer to Nintendo and further away from PS3 exclusives and HD multiplats.

I can see them being pretty much Nintendo only developers by the end of this year as with the lower development costs and sales success they have had so far it makes perfect sense for them.

also if The Conduit does well then HVS may just go to them for their next title(s) and they've also vowed to deliver hardcore titles for the gamers, their quckly building up a reputation.

What about Marvelous? (No More Heroes, Little King's Story, Demon Blade Muramasa, etc)

On-Topic for the very last paragraph: That will depend on how flooded that market is, not that many people buy inferior softwares. The worse that'll happen is making it diffcult for new gamers to pick up some more niche titles.

yeah marvellous, THQ and Ubisoft (RS2 should be good and Broken Sword is one of my most favourite franchises ever) also have my attention this year.

Perhaps the tide is turning as the mini game market gets flooded. Whatever happens this year is gonna be the wii's best year ever in terms of software.

Make you own thread. This is the thread to be on Sega's jock.

@Me

I see them being mainly Nintendo developers after this year, but I don't see them abandoning the other two consoles. Sega was very supportive last gen with all three consoles. I do see more Wii/360/PS3 multiplats with Wii in mind as the heavy seller. I see the end coming for PS3 exclusives. I see them diminishing their amount of HD multiplats every year. I see them getting more and more in bed with Nintendo as time goes on. Maybe Sega will start appearing in Mario sports games. Maybe we'll actually get that Mario/Sonic platformer that everyone my age dreamed about in the early 90's.

What Sega is doing is financially smart. They are building a core on both ends. They are making a name for themselves as a trustworthy name for both the expanded audience through Sonic and the core audience through Conduit and MadWorld. If quality is high on the core games, they can singlehandedly start bringing in more HD console owners to get a Wii as a secondary.

and this is why I think Nintendo is so keen to help them - if Nintendo puplished the core games it wanted to do well on it's console then everybody would tout the old "only Nintendo games do well" even though they only published it so Sega carrying the can is great for Nintendo.

Up to now it's been Nintendo making the Wii a success on their own but it seems Sega finally has the right idea  and I see them playing a major role this year in the Wii's story and I also see others following them this year.

What we have to bear in mind also is that these party games may sell well but 99% of them are sold at a budget price and if somebody proves their is a core audience for the wii and they are willing to buy full price games then everybody will want a piece of that.

As a former sega fan Im not super pleased.. I just dont want to be abused with crap like "olympic games".. if they made something special out of it.. good party games, platformers or racing titles. yes that is interesting.. SEGA needs the money right now thanks to sammy's crappy business outlook and wii seems to deliver very well for them

the conduit, madworld do look awesome. Now if only they'd publish "winter". It could be the wii's version of condemned :)

Combine Sega Tennis with Nintendo Tennis and we've got a winner.

I reckon they will pick Winter up - they're probably calling people right now to look into it.