Sega: Sonic and Mario to sell 4 million

Sega corporate director Masanao Maeda has stated that he expects Mario and Sonic at the Olympics to sell 4 million copies when it goes on sale in November.

The statement was made at the Tokyo Games Show and reported by Bloomberg, and did not yield a specific time period for that sales figure, but the company will be looking for the Beijing Olympics next year to play its part - as well as continuing good sales of the platforms the game will be released on, the Nintendo Wii and DS.

The ambitious target is equivalent to almost 20 per cent of Sega's game sales in the last financial year, and is the same number as the original Sonic title sold when it was released in 1991.