Following yesterday’s shock announcement that long-term gaming rivals Mario and Sonic are to join forces in the new Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, it has been confirmed that Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto will be overseeing development of the title.

Next Generation reports that teams from both Sega and Nintendo will be working on the game. Sega of America’s president and COO Simon Jeffery told the site: “The majority of the physical development is being done by the Sega Sports team, with very heavy supervision from Mr. Miyamoto and his team as well.

“Miyamoto will absolutely be involved. That’s what makes it particularly exciting.”

And Nintendo’s senior VP of marketing George Harrison went on to add that the new game could be the beginning of a closer working relationship between Nintendo and Sega:

“We’ve certainly seen a growing cooperation and respect between Sega and Nintendo. We just have to see how things work out in the future. We’re not going to have a great success and then sort of walk away from each other, but we have to sort of take it one step at a time.”