Only on his new job for about two and a half weeks, Mike Hayes is the man who now oversees Sega West, the combined domain of Sega of America and Sega of Europe and the man who I asked yesterday to define, if such a term is possible, “Sega-ness.”

Hayes, who formerly had been running just Sega of Europe and years before that was at Nintendo, was taking meetings in New York on the penthouse floor of a midtown Manhattan hotel. Based in London, he was paying a visit to the territory added to his portfolio. Around him, in adjacent rooms, a line-up with a diversity that make even Sega’s innovative line-ups of its old Genesis and Dreamcast eras look homogeneous was illuminating TV screens. A few doors in one direction were Aliens Vs. Predator and espionage role-playing game Alpha Protocol. In the other, beyond more than half a dozen other distinct games, were Daisy Fuentes Pilates and a Sonic kart-racing game.

Is there an essence of Sega that unifies the company’s games? Something that a gamer unaware of the company logos on game boxes might still sense as a unifying aspect of Sega’s games?

“In some cases, but not all,” Hayes said, answering this early question with the thoughtfulness and lack of diplomatic self-censorship with which he’d field all of my questions. “When we are trying to do core games like Aliens Vs. Predator from Rebellion, I don’t think you’ll find any Seganess in that. However, there are a lot of games that we do do—whether it be particularly with our old intellectual property, like Monkey Ball, like with Mario and Sonic and … things like Let’s Tap—it’s that kind of slight risk-taking that Sega was renowned for as innovators that we still do and we still intend to do.”

Such a publisher winds up having to field from an outlet like this one questions as wide-ranging as the fate of its Aliens licence, its Sonic line and its heritage as a hardware maker. More on some of that later this week, but here’s our first batch of updates.

Aliens is one of the murkier Sega topics. The company announced in 2006 that it would publish three games based on the famous chest-bursting movie monsters. Sega showed Aliens Vs. Predator at this event, demonstrating how games can play as a human marines or a Predator. Still under wraps is what playing like an Alien will be like. But this game wasn’t expected to be the first Aliens game from Sega. That was going to be the Gearbox-developed Aliens: Colonial Marines shooter or the now-canceled Obsidian-developed Aliens RPG.

“The Gearbox project was moving along,” Hayes said, recalling when the decision was made to take Colonial Marines out of the lead position. The game wasn’t as far along as Aliens Vs. Predator, which originally wasn’t backed by Sega. It was being made by Rebellion for publisher Vivendi, until that support ceased following Vivendi’s 2008 merger with Activision. “There was an opportunity for us to take that.” Its development progress put Gearbox’s game into the second slot, to be released “a good period after” AvP, according to Hayes. The RPG won’t be third because “it just wasn’t coming along to the plan that we thought.”

Might the newly announced, Ridley Scott Alien prequel project be a source of Aliens inspiration for Sega? “We’re quite excited about that and buzzing from the news of that,” Hayes said. But of the third game, Hayes would only say, ” We’d like to think we’ll be doing a third project but at the moment we haven’t confirmed what the third project will be.”

Another hyped grouping of Sega games has been its trio of Wii games targeted to the demographic of gamers that prefers a good headshot or chainsaw kill to an interactive sit-up routine: House of the Dead Overkill, MadWorld and The Conduit. Hayes views their fortunes as mixed. Sales reports don’t show blockbuster numbers for any of the games, but Hays said, “I just don’t think, categorically, that you can therefore conclude that mature games won’t work on Wii.”

Hayes deemed profane Grindhouse-style in-rails shooter House of the Dead: Overkill a “big success in Europe,” even though it performed less spectacularly in America. Hayes said the game’s budget-priced Wii predecessor, which compiled two earlier games in the series, continues to do well, suggesting there’s a future to this line. “We’re still very keen on the House of the Dead franchise.”

The Conduit can also be deemed a success, Hayes said, qualifying its performance as a solid one in a season that has seen a pre-holiday Wii hardware and software “dip.” The company has shipped 300,000 copies of the game worldwide and sold through more than half of them to gamers, about 100,000 in the U.S., according to figures from Segaof America VP of marketing, Sean Ratcliffe who attended our interview.

It is the mostly black-and-white, hyper-violent MadWorld that Hayes dubbed a “disappointment” for reasons he can’t yet nail down. “It could be the consumers didn’t like the art style,” he said. “It could be the consumers had enough Mature-rated games to play on 360 and PS3 and didn’t need a new experience on Wii.”

Hayes sums up the mixed success of those titles with a sanguine recognition that any grouping of games will have its hit, its flop and some in-between performers. “That’s video games,” he said. And it’s not the end of this Wii gamer narrative from Sega. ” You will see more—I wouldn’t say Mature as in M—but you will definitely see more hardcore games from us on the Wii platform.”

MadWorld was part of a second grouping of Sega titles, those developed by Platinum Games, the company led mainly by former design stars at Capcom. Bayonetta, now releasing in early 2010 in the U.S. will be the second, along with DS game Infinite Space. Hayes said there will be at least two more Platinum Games titles published by Sega beyond that, but wouldn’t provide details nor confirm if either of those is the previously-announced game being developed by heralded Japanese game maker Shinji Mikami.

One of the biggest hits for Sega in Japan has been its Yakuza series, a line of story-driven brawlers set, mostly, in modern Tokyo and crafted with the help of a Japanese crime novelist and Toshihiro Nagoshi, the classically eclectic Sega developer who also dreamed up the kid-friendly Super Monkey Ball. Yakuza may be the Japanese series that most closely matches the urban antisocial vibe of the Grand Theft Auto series, but its two PlayStation 2 releases in America have sold poorly. A third PS2 Yakuza was not brought to America. A current-gen game, Yakuza 3, made its mark in Japan in February. The third is absent from Sega’s announced U.S. release schedule. “We’re looking into it,” Hayes said, remarking that it would require “massive localisation” work and that, yes, he’s aware of the dedicated fans here clamouring for its release.

Hayes answered that Yakuza question outside of our interview, truth be told. We’d wrapped up. I was at the other end of the penthouse, preparing to play Mario and Sonic at the Winter Olympics after commandeering Luigi on bobsled I saw Hayes and had to ask. Imagine the ability to transition from playing character-mascot Olympics to a discussion of a crime-filled city adventure, all without leaving the same publisher’s demo hotel suite: Maybe that is the definition of “Sega-ness”

It’s been quite awhile, but now we’re back, playing the Nintendo Wii family party game Go Play Lumberjacks, so you don’t have to.

Go Play Lumberjacks is, oddly enough, part of Majesco’s new Go Play line of family-friendly titles. Of course, on the Nintendo Wii, family-friendly generally translates into mini-games, and Lumberjacks is no different. The game actually has quite a few nifty features, including Wii Balance Board support and the ability to unlock a whole host of secret characters, one of which is your Mii. I heard you all gasp with delight right there.

Unfortunately, too many of the mini-games amount to me standing in front of the television pantomiming masturbation, something I don’t generally do unless I am watching CNN.

Have you been eyeing a budget title at your local game store but just aren’t prepared to take the plunge sight unseen? Feel free to use the comments section to suggest more games you’d like us to play So You Don’t Have To.

The shiny Nintendo console was delivered to Buckingham Palace today as part of a marketing stunt meant to promote BIG Family Games, the latest title in THQ’s BIG series. The game contains 24 classic family games, from lawn darts to bocce, which THQ product manager Danielle Robinson hopes the Royal Family will enjoy.

“BIG Family Games is the ultimate Wii game to get all family members, from grandparents to young children, playing together. The Royal Family is arguably the most important family in the country so we felt that they had to have a copy of the new game. But we thought that Her Majesty the Queen wouldn’t want to play on any old console, so an extra-special gold one was commissioned. We hope that she and the rest of the Royal Family enjoy the game!”

Of course chances of Her Royal Highness ever touching the console, let alone playing it are somewhere between slim and none, but there you go. Maybe they’ll trade it with President Obama the next time he shows up with iPods.

Spectrobes makes the leap from two small screens to one large one, as Disney Interactive Studios takes their original science fiction adventure series to the Nintendo Wii with Spectrobes: Origins.

Planetary patrol officer Rallen returns in the next evolution of the Spectrobes franchise, continuing his adventures from the first two titles on the DS – Spectrobes and Spectrobes: Beyond the Portals. Origins will feature an epic story that uses flashbacks to reveal secrets from the past, with Rallen and his Spectrobe companions taking on enemies in large-scale real-time battles.

The fossil excavation mechanic from the DS titles returns in origins, only this time the fossils are three dimensional, which should make uncovering them a bit more than simply tapping the screen repeatedly.

“The popularity and creativity of the Wii platform make it the perfect stage for this exciting evolution of the Spectrobes franchise,” said Craig Relyea, senior vice president of global marketing, Disney Interactive Studios. “Spectrobes: Origins delivers the immersive storytelling, dynamic action and memorable characters that audiences have come to expect of Disney entertainment.”

Can’t say I’m surprised, really. The Spectrobes series had Wii written all over it from the get-go. It was only a matter of time. Look for more information on Spectrobes: Origins as we get closer to the game’s Fall 2009 launch.

Sure, video games are raising our children and you can’t vote with a Wii remote. Now that the voting is over, President-elect Obama finds time to kick back with a little Wii Sports bowling.

In an article in the New York Times in which our soon-to-be President predicts a Florida win over Oklahoma in tonight’s BCS championship game, it is revealed that Barack Obama’s daughters received a shiny new Nintendo console when Santa Claus visited this year.

Mr. Obama said he’d have his hands full attempting to rescue the American economy. But he has gotten in a little practice in bowling lately on the Nintendo Wii his daughters received for Christmas. Mr. Obama, who famously struggled in bowling during last year’s Democratic primaries, said he performs better in the video game.

I don’t know much about politics, but it gives me an amazing amount of warm fuzzies knowing there’s going to be a game console in the White House.

Obama Predicts a Florida Victory [The New York Times via GameCulture]

Yes, hemp string. The exterior of this Wii Remote and Nunchuk are made out of “100% natural hemp”, giving them a rustic, fuzzy, organic appearance. But the insides? 100% Nintendo-manufactured Wii Remote insides. This remote’s accelerometer, infra-red and buttons are all fully armed and operational (if also exceedingly delicate).

Endtroducing: The Hemp-Mote [DHRECK]

Stranger still was the fact that there were almost no lines for the beautifully crafted 2D platformer. I handed the controller to Tristan and watched him take to the title like a gamer thirsting for some old-school, hardcore fun on a casual gaming platform.

The game plays mostly with the D-pad and buttons but you do have to pull off the occasional motion-activated slam. Wario Land Shake It seems fairly straight forward, but Nintendo has buried plenty of hidden items and side quests to make the game fun to replay.

The thing most captivating about the game is its clean, hand-drawn look. It’s simply beautiful to behold in action.

Nintendo has been far too busy printing money and dreaming up strange new controllers to actually finish that DVD-on-Wii thing it has been promising for the last couple of years.

Happily, the homebrew community has stepped up and put together a Wii channel that will read a DVD disc and pipe it through the open source MPlayer media player.

It’s not quite ready for prime time — the audio can sometimes get out of sync, although this is more a ‘feature’ of MPlayer than the fault of the hack, we suspect. Worth checking out, though, and it might just save Nintendo the bother of building something that nobody has really been crying out for but would be nice to have for free.

Homebrew Enables DVD Playback On Wii [Gemaga.com]

Pachter’s reasoning, in comments to GamePro, is that the next-gen consoles are not truly mass-market items yet, and won’t be until their price point dips to $AU 207.28.

“Around 90% of last-generation console sales were made at the $AU 207.28 price point or below”, he says. “Only wealthy or hardcore gamers have purchased consoles so far, given that the PS3 is still $AU 415.6, the 360 is still $AU 363.52, and the Wii is still $AU 259.36. When prices drop below $AU 208.32 (probably in 2010), the mass market [for 360 and PS3] will emerge”.

Pachter’s been on the warpath for console price cuts, predicting a $AU 52.08 drop this holiday season for the PS3 and 360 as the console makers try in vain to duplicate last year’s stellar sales figures. He’s also said the current next-gen line is going to drop below 10 percent growth by 2010 unless they lop $AU 156.24 off current prices.

The Wii below $AU 208.32, that’s a solid bet. But good gosh, considering Sony’s lost more than $AU 3.12 billion so far, pricing the PS3 below its production cost, can anyone really think we’ll see that unit below $AU 208.32? Or the 360, for that matter? And if makers did follow his predictions, there would be about a one-year mass market for these consoles before market forces dictated the next next-gen console for us wealthy hardcore gamers, around 2011. If that’s when these consoles finally enter the mass market, and how long they’ll stay, how many good games will we really see in that span?

Price, not GTAIV to Blame for Slow PS3, 360 Sales Analyst Says [GamePro]

But BBB got hold of the video’s poster and subsequent confirmation that PheroseSoft, a seven-person team made up of former devs for EA Canada Burnaby and Rockstar North, is developing something called “WiiMove”. It should be available by WiiWare sometime after October this year, Balance Board Blog reports.

A representative of PheroseSoft told BBB that “the game looks to put an unexpected slant on the Wii Balance Board”. Ya don’t say. The video’s after the jump.

Wii Move confirmed – developed by ex EA, Rockstar staff [BalanceBoardBlog, via ComputerandVideoGames.com]