It's a fantastic question, I think, as Hollywood has no fear trotting out the cinematic goods that have a very brief window of appropriateness. Right now, three holiday films—Fred Claus, This Christmas and The Perfect Holiday—are currently showing in the US top ten box office, but there's not much beyond timed events, downloadable clothing and quests that are holiday specific in games these days. Holiday era re-issues on titles that underperformed or could appeal to the pre-order shy might be something the industry should think about.

We're just about up to our eyeballs in Christmas cards from developers, but what about demos for already released games with a candy cane or two thrown in? One might think that with all that downloadable content out there, whether free or pay-to-play, it might make financial sense to toss in an elf or Hannukah Harry.

Actually, I won't be surprised to see 2K or Midway ship a Wii minigame collection next November. Any games that you can think of that would benefit from a holiday re-skin?

Persuasive Games: The Holly and the Ivy [Gamasutra]

Please register your interest for Sega of America executives in the comments, but please, no threats of bodily harm.

NiGHTS Into Dreams... "Christmas dream" Collection [Game Watch]

Good thing, too, as Sega's other Saturn-era remakes released under the budget Sega Ages line were starting to make the PlayStation 2 version of NiGHTS Into Dreams look like a bit of a rip-off. Non-postage stamp sized screens are available at Gpara.

NiGHTS Into Dreams [Gpara]

NiGHTS on PS2... the good one! [CVG]

This Saturn-era Sonic the Hedgehog never made it past this conceptual stage. Why? I'll let YouTube uploader AssemblerX explain.

This is a video of the concept "nights" version of Sonic Xtreme for Sega Saturn. Looking to produce a concept for a 3D sonic, a Sega USA team either used or closely followed the design of "Nights" and caused problems internally at Sega. Thinking or knowing that the US team had used their engine, the Japanese nights team had a fit. The engine was scrapped and a different engine, the so called "fish eye" version was used. This engine was later canceled as unworkable.

There's not much to it, but it looks at least somewhat workable from my perspective. Michael McWhertor

I'll come clean and admit that, even though I own the original NiGHTS Into Dreams and still have my Saturn stashed in the back room, I haven't touched the thing in close to a decade. Worse, I hardly remember how the thing played. Maybe I should put that on the list of What I'm Playing This Weekend... Michael McWhertor

Now at indie developer Prope, Naka and his team of roughly two-dozen staff members instead want to focus on "works that have the power to fill the children of the world with dreams." Magical! He's sounding more and more like he would be at home in the Tokyo equivalent of Neverland Ranch ensconced in purple velvet atop a throne built from gingerbread and lollipops.

Sadly, we have little more to go on in regard to Prope's plans, only that they're going to platform agnostic in the Sega tradition. Michael McWhertor

Interview: Life after Sonic [CVG]

Thanks for the heads up, Alexander! Michael McWhertor

GameReactor #46 Preview [GameReactor]

At least that's what he says.

CVG spoke with the figurehead behind the original NiGHTS game for the Sega Saturn who stated he had "no such intentions" of revisiting the franchise. Now with the partially Sega funded Prope studio, Naka's involvement doesn't really mean squat. Sega's been passing around classic franchises to all sorts of dev houses lately, so a NiGHTS sequel developed by an internal or outsourced team is still a possibility.

Still, I'm with Luke. Give me a Samba de Amigo sequel before this! Michael McWhertor

No new NiGHTS from Yuji Naka [CVG]

Still, hope survives in the form of a release list from G-Rev—who just happen to have nothing to do with shmup developers G.rev, who, also unrelated, are responsible for Xbox 360 wet dream shooter-fighter Senko no Ronde as well as Dreamcast faves Border Down and Under Defeat.

The list, linked from the dark and lovely Brandon of Insert Credit and currently roaming the internet, also features another to-good-to-be-true title, NiGHTS for the Nintendo Wii.

But what do we have to go on with NiGHTS for the Wii? Pretty much nil. Sega has done virtually nothing with the franchise since its debut in 1996, but that hasn't stopped every Sonic Team and Yuji Naka hyperfan from putting a sequel or remake on his or her fantasy list alongside every new console release.

Is this just an internet rumor running wild, ultimately showing up on G-rev's exhaustive console listing? That's my guess. With Sega focusing on older IP like Alien Syndrome and After Burner, however, we'll rule nothing out.

I honestly hope this is true and that someone will have the good sense or financial recklessness to release a top-down shooter in the West, but I'm not holding my breath. As for NiGHTS Into Dreams for the Wii? I'm not going to set myself up for disappointment. I'm assuming this, like Shenmue III, will never see the light of day.

Pray that I'm wrong! Michael McWhertor

360 Ikaruga Sequel In The Works? [Kotaku]