From its inception, Platinum Games declared its games were being engineered with worldwide appeal. MadWorld struggled to find an audience earlier this year for reasons Sega hasn't yet figured out, according to recently appointed Sega president and COO Mike Hayes.

But Hayes doesn't believe Platinum Games' next release, the hyperkinetic Bayonetta from Devil May Cry creator Hideki Kamiya, will face the problems at release.

"I think there are clearly development differences between the two," said Hayes in a phone interview with me earlier this week. "On MadWorld itself, we're researching it as we speak to try and identify some of the causes behind that. I think Bayonetta comes from a background and a genre that's been already proven to be popular. I think with MadWorld we were trying to be so many different things probably all at once that maybe we pushed the envelope a bit too far."

Bayonetta was originally scheduled before the end of year, but Sega moved the game into January. Explaining the delay, Hayes said it's difficult to launch a new franchise in the busy November period. But no matter where it lands, Hayes expects bigger things from Bayonetta than MadWorld.

"I think we have a huge, high degree of confidence with Bayonetta because games in that genre on those platforms have been successful in the past," he said. "We think Bayonetta actually takes that and lifts the quality and lifts the gameplay further to make sure that that's going to be a hit."

How do you think Bayonetta will do when it's released early next year?