Sonic next-gen at TGS?

Is SEGA going to show off a next-generation Sonic game at the Tokyo Game Show? "Yes!" says the Internet. "No comment!" says the SEGA bloke we spoke to this morning. So what's causing all the excitement?

Well, a few things. First, SEGA showed off several next-gen tech demos at E3 this year and Sonic was among them. It's subsequently announced several of them as games bound for its new Lindbergh arcade system, but not Sonic.

Second, SEGA is known to be very much behind the next-generation of formats - with Full Auto, Condemned, and a Silicon Knights title on the cards for Xbox 360, and Fifth Phantom Saga bound for PlayStation 3 - but it has far more Japanese studios than it does pokers in the next-gen fire (or something).

Third, TGS organiser CESA has released a floorplan for this year's event, and SEGA's booth is second only to Sony in terms of size, with Namco, Konami and Microsoft's displays slightly smaller in each case. Microsoft, lest anybody forget, is launching Xbox 360 in Japan before Christmas. Yet SEGA's is bigger. You needn't do the maths, because the rumour abacus is already on it.

Also, we've heard whispers of a Sonic unveiling at TGS ourselves from people who probably ought to know. Shady characters, whose very existence is cloaked in secrecy, and who are thoroughly rubbish at Super Monkey Ball.

So then. Next-gen Sonic at TGS? Maybe. Probably. Whatever, we'll let you know if it happens.