Sept. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Sega Sammy Holdings Inc., creator of the Sonic the Hedgehog, said sales of a new video game pitting its flagship character against Nintendo Co.'s Mario will reach 4 million units after it goes on sale this year.

Masanao Maeda, a corporate director at Sega's game software division, declined to give a specific time period for the sales target when he spoke at the Tokyo Game Show yesterday. The forecast is equivalent to almost 20 percent of the games Sega Sammy sold in the year ended March 31.

``Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games,'' due for release this holiday season for Nintendo's Wii console and DS Lite player, highlights Sega's strategy of adding recognizable characters in its game titles to bolster sales. In April, the company said it would release games based on Marvel Entertainment Inc. characters such as the Hulk and Captain America.

Sonic's 1991 debut for Sega sold 4 million units, establishing the blue hedgehog as a franchise, according to the company's website. Nintendo introduced an Italian plumber called Mario in 1981 in the game ``Donkey Kong,'' later branching him out as the main figure in games including ``Super Mario Bros.''

Video games accounted for about 23 percent of Sega Sammy's sales and 2 percent of its operating profit in the year to March 31. The Tokyo-based company was formed when pachinko slot-machine maker Sammy Corp. bought Sega Corp. in October 2004.

To contact the reporters on this story: Pavel Alpeyev in Tokyo at palpeyev@bloomberg.net; Kiyotaka Matsuda in Tokyo at kmatsuda@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: September 20, 2007 21:39 EDT