Two countdown clocks are up on Japanese developer web sites, both pointing to something being announced around Friday. One looks like Zelda, the other Mario-ish.
What else is there to it? Beats me. The Triforce-looking countdown is brought to you by Marvelous Entertainment, the 8-bit mushroom is courtesy of Sega Japan. It makes a 1up (extra life, not blog) sound when you click it. Are we gonna see a Mario/Sonic combo? Your guess is as good as mine.
In the interest of full disclosure, I usually don't talk about news judgment but seeing how late to the party this one is, I owe an explanation. Yesterday I saw this, considered it, and came to a decision that countdown clocks are primarily marketing, and offer little news value beyond the mention of their existence. Plus, there's nothing definitive I can say about what these point to, and my own knowledge of what these developers have worked on is extremely limited, so my speculation is uninformed. That said, the first rule of news, as Dad always told me, is that it's what people are talking about. And plenty of people are talking about this. Bad call on my part.
Update: Loyal Reader Shaun O Mac fiddled around and found this on the Sega countdown:
Clicking the letters in the Takao Miyoshi brings up links to other Sega products, not sure what that's about though. One is Let's Tap, C is Let's Catch, The other is U-Can, and P in produce plays a funky jingle, but I don't know what it's from.
The games that are displayed are Prope titles which is Yuji Naka's studio so perhaps he is ready to announce his next title, and Sega are giving him back Sonic the Hedgehog. That I doubt, but it is Prope related.
Marvelous Entertainment Vaguely Zeldaish Countdown Clock [site]
Sega Japan Vaguely Marioish Countdown Clock [site]
Thanks to many tipsters who mentioned these.