@Onyxmeth: You missed one thing that Sega is after with M&S, which is to raise the value of Sonic. On Megadrive, Sonic was a huge hit, but after going 3D, the games have apparently more or less sucked.
Now, with M&S, Sega wants to make people, familiar with Mario, familiar to other Sonic games.

And to add to that, if Sega decides to publish games "that sell hardware" (ie. like they'd be first party), they have a winning formula. The common mentality among the publishers seems to be that they don't want even accidentally make games that drive hardware sales and the first party would benefit from it.

@Jammy: Actually it's most propably because Wii likely has the biggest userbase of gamers from the 4th generation, to who Sonic already is a familiar character and who are familiar with Segas other games from the era.

I was going to say that F-Zero GX was very good, but then again, it released in 2003. Does that count?

Well yeah, but that basically goes without saying. Any publisher with a franchise is mediocrity limbo is trying to raise the value of that said franchise. My point is they are trying to primarily build up Sonic's audience on the Wii, and that's a good idea, because...

1. He speaks to the nostalgic gamer that got out after the SNES era and now has a Wii.

2. He is an iconic design acceptable for children, same as Mario.

3. Partnering him up with Mario is the kind of marketing that only comes around one in a lifetime, and it has benefitted both names, not just Sonic. Notice how Mario & Sonic has sold gangbusters more than any Mario sports title on the Wii, and it has outsold Mario Party 8 by over 500,000 with 6 months less to sell it in.

If Sega stays in bed with Nintendo and stays this course they are on, I see them being very successful in the near future on the Wii.

This is the reason that Wii will ultimately be the saviour of Japanese home-console development. The 360 and PS3 being coeval with the average gaming PC of today means that there is a lot of overlap, and Western developers absolutely thrive when they have a high-tech environment to work in, aside from the fact that Sony focused the PS3 as a counter to the 360 (just as MS focused the 360 as a counter to the PS3), so the two are built to match each other in Western core gamer appeal

But as these western developers deliver masterworks on PS360, they mostly fall flat on Wii. The Japanese are used to working in a console environment, working with restrictions and optimizing hardware, instead of simply yearning for stronger hardware. The Japanese will be able to produce the standout products, which will save their relevance, except for the ones who think the way forward is trying to fight the western developers on their terms (Square Enix, Konami, and Capcom). These companies will find that you can't fight a PC developer at what he or she does best.

@Onyxmeth: It is obvious, but the reason i thought it would be worth mentioning, is that Sega may be interested in using similar strategy with Nintendo, with the difference that they want the Nintendo audience to get into Sega games.
If we look at Nintendos strategy; new gamers coming in with Wii Sports -> moving upstream with Mario Kart -> after being introduced to core franchise (Mario), they may be interested in trying out another title with Mario in it. M&S would be a perfect game for this audience, since it's sports, it has Mario and it is easy to pick up.
Now, looking at what Sega might be up to, the upsteaming game may very well be M&S, when the "Mario stage" would get skipped (after all, the game has a third foothold, the Olympics). But what Sega is missing, is a bridge between M&S and the core Sonic games. I guess Sonic Riders could have been one, but it has sold pretty badly, if i recall, so Sega would need some other game to take its place.

Anyway, M&S at the Olympic Games is so genious with all the aspects taken into account, that it's pretty hard to imagine anything but S&M in the Olympic Games to have similar effect. It would be day one purchase for me, but after the game it could be pretty hard to keep up the family friendly image.

But other than that, i pretty much agree with what you've said in the topic.

It's not only Sega there is Marvelous, Activision, EA, Ubisoft, Capcom.

and THQ, I really enjoyed de blob and also looking forward to deadly creatures.

Sega = Super Win! Jet Grind Radio Wii Sega!!! Make it happen!!

and no. because of the imagine series of BS, Ubisoft will never be win again for nintendo.

@Novasonic: How so? Considering the franchise is closing 10M, with best selling game closing 2,5M, it seems to be reaching its audience.
http://vgchartz.com/games/index.php?&results=50&name=Imagine&console=&keyword=&publisher=&genre=&order=Sales&boxart=Both&showdeleted=&region=All&alphasort=

To me it looks like a win, even if you don't like the game, a lot of people seems to be liking. And considering the strong sales, the games seem to deliver.

Sega and Nintendo is proving to be the ultimate combination. We need these games to succeed to reward sega for bringing such a solid AAA lineup.

It looks like you thought this out very well. It seems to explain a lot of what going on now.

I would like to know when these standout products will make it out side of japan.