Hey guys, since most of the E3 reveals were leaked like a guy who really needs to take a pee, let me throw out a rumor that should happen after E3, if my sources are right.

Last week, I was talking to a friend of mine who works in the arcade game industry. I'd love to say who he is, but he asked to remain in the shadows. Anyways, while talking about his former employer, he mentioned, out of the blue, that Sega was working on a new Daytona USA game. Now, he wasn't going to yank my chain over this. He knows that I consider Daytona USA 2 to be the pinnacle of arcade racers- hell, of video games in general. He wouldn't play with my emotions, right?

Well, looking at the ancillary evidence, I found two reasons to believe in him.

First, the potential issue was that the Daytona USA trademark is actually held by the International Speedway Corporation, a NASCAR affiliated company. Since EA holds the exclusive rights to NASCAR games, that should be the end of it, right? Wrong. EA appears to be giving up exclusivity rights, and someone already pounced on the opportunity to make an online NASCAR league. So, if NASCAR is willing to play ball with non-EA game companies, then surely they can play ball with Sega again.

Secondly, Sega released a Daytona USA soundtrack boxset last April. Someone at Sega must be aware of the franchises' 15th anniversary, and they're probably, hopefully, going to do more than just a OST boxset.

I didn't get anything else from my buddy. Is this going to be a brand new game? A re-release of the original game or its 1998 sequel? If it's brand new, what will it look like and what hardware will it be on? That last question is not an accident. I was told that it would debut at the JAMMA arcade show on September 17-19. Maybe, just maybe, we'll get home ports. But this rumor gave me something to look forward to post-E3.

In the meantime, here's a little something...