Mario and Sonic for London Olympics?

SEGA has confirmed that a new Sonic game will be released in 2011, though there's much confusion over its identity.

The publisher's European boss, Jurgen Post, yesterday told MCV, "We know we have Sonic and Football Manager this year, a new Total War next year, and a new Sonic and Virtua Tennis next year."

A number of rumours have popped up as to what the Sonic game is, including alleged confirmation from a Spanish SEGA rep that the iconic hedgehog will be teaming up with Mario for another Olympics title for the 2012 London games.

Spanish site Sonic Paradise claimed to hear the news directly from SEGA employee Izaskun Urretabizkaia at Gamefest 2010 in Madrid this week.

Urretabizkaia also apparently announced that SEGA is working on Sonic Anniversary, which will feature a number of classic Sonic levels reimagined in both 2D and 3D.

However, a spokesperson for SEGA has since told Eurogamer, "It turns out the Spanish person quoted in the original post (and she was called a "he" in there...) did not even attend this event.

"So we can't comment on this one. It's really weird speculation based on the fact that there are Olympics in London (surprise, surprise) and Sonic has its 20th anniversary next year."

So, a right old mess then. If it's not either of the titles Urretabizkaia did or did not reveal in Madrid, Post could of course be referring to Sonic The Hedgehog 4: Episode 2.

Or it could be the untitled Sonic game that showed up on a list of forthcoming 3DS games released by Nintendo after its E3 conference.

However, we've already learned that list wasn't 100 per cent accurate – a listing for A Boy & His Blob was recently confirmed as a mistake.

One thing we are certain of though: there are more than enough Sonic games to go round as it is. Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 launches on PlayStation Network, WiiWare and Xbox Live Arcade this week, while Sonic Colours hits DS and Wii on 12th November.