According to former Sega employee Mike Fischer, when Sega signed on to publish Gamecube games, Nintendo posted a guy in a Mario costume to greet the Sonic mascot.
Super Mario Wiki
Mike Fischer began his Sega tenure at a young age and spent his first few years in Japan before transferring over to SOA. He went on to executive positions at Namco, Square/Enix, and Xbox. He told us about some of the historic events he witnessed over the years.
www.sega-16.com/2026/05/inte...
