I am officially sorry I wasn't able to stay in San Francisco yesterday in order to attend Sega's briefing. Why? The announcement of its partnership with Platinum Games and the three titles they have in the works seems like it's far and away the most exciting thing to come out of this week's orgy of press junkets.

Why? Well the company is headed by Atsushi Inaba, one of the key figures behind my absolute favorite game of 2006, "Okami," as well as innovative (if not ultimately as appealing) titles like "Viewtiful Joe" and "Phoenix Wright."

Capcom, of course, famously dissolved Inaba's last studio Clover after "Okami" failed commercially. But just as everyone in Hollywood went after the talent behind "Arrested Development" after that incredibly well respected, if unpopular, show got canned, it's no surprised that someone has eagerly signed up for four games from Platinum.

The first, "Mad World," sounds awesome. A super sytlized, over-the-top hard-core action for the Wii fills a big hole in the market that has thus far only had one contender in "No More Heroes." Between the early screenshots and this description from Kotaku (who did stick around to see it), I'm already stoked:

Jack's right hand is a chainsaw, and bodies cut vertically in half fell to either side in a splash of vibrant red blood. When a heart was torn from a ribcage, the bad guy would fall back with Jack still clutching the muscle, before crushing it in his hand. Impaled black and white bodies oozed red in great rivulets of blood.

And also, I've got to say, glad to see that Sega's growth plans involve taking some real artistic risks, not just relying on Marvel movie licenses (not that there's anything wrong with that, so long as they aren't all as lame as "Iron Man").

Other promising, if not quite as obviously original and viscerally appealing, games announced from Platinum were DS RPG "Infinite Line" and and 360/PS3 fantasy/action game "Bayonetta."