VentureBeat today posted an interview with Sean Ratcliffe, vice president of marketing at Sega of America. Ratcliffe was especially pleased with the over 10 million in sales that Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Summer Games racked up and is optimistic for the sequel, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games.

"The Nintendo platforms continue to sell really well," said Ratcliffe. "There are more mainstream people out there who are interested in this sort of mass-market game. I also think the events of the Winter Olympics are actually more relevant to gaming. We have snowboarding, downhill skiing, bobsled, speed skating, and so on. We also have new features like the balance board and four-player cooperative gameplay. I think when you wrap all that up, our hope is definitely to exceed the original, but we don't have a specific number in mind."

"I think the key factor that decides the ongoing building of this franchise is basically success," he continued. "Is the game successful? Are consumers happy with it? It's quite a long list of people who are involved in making that game, from the IOC (International Olympic Committee) to ISM (International Sports Multimedia) to Nintendo to Sega. We see this as an ongoing franchise, but we can't comment about future Olympic events. We've not spoken to the right people about that yet, and it would be wrong of us to sort of speculate around that. But clearly, this is a franchise that resonates well with gamers, and we're very pleased of our success to date."

Ratcliffe proudly asserted that Sega has fared better on the Wii because of their ability to release mainstream, family titles. When asked about details on their core franchises for the Wii, he was upbeat if somewhat sparse on details.

"House of the Dead has done very well and has absolutely met our expectations. The first set of data for MadWorld is very encouraging, as well," said Ratcliffe, adding, "If [MadWorld] resonates with the audience, yes, we absolutely want to make that into a franchise. I think it's unique, and there are many aspects of that game which are sort of pushing boundaries. And it's just great fun."

Turning attention to the DSi, Ratcliffe noted that this new version of the console will likely be the one to survive in the long run, but that it wouldn't change Sega's short term plans. "I think looking at the functionality and all the things that the DSi can do, you probably have to believe that ultimately the DSi is going to be the platform that continues and the DS will probably die out," asserted Ratcliffe. "Having said that, Nintendo platforms tend to have a long tail. It took Game Boy years before it completely died out. I think what we'll do is look at some of our key titles and make sure that we're incorporating functionality for the DSi, but also understand that there are millions of people who have a DS and will continue to play games on the DS. I think for a long time we'll have to cater for both of those audiences."

"We're not really changing our portfolio plans," he added. "With the DSi, for a considerable length of time, you're going to have a smaller number of people compared to the DS. The bigger market is still going to be those DS consumers. And we have no plans right now to alter our approach with the DS."