There’s no Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games video game to coincide with the Paris 2024 Olympics because the International Olympics Committee ditched its long-running partnership with Nintendo and Sega to chase the likes of NFTs and esports, a new report has claimed.
According to Eurogamer, the IOC failed to renew its licensing deal with Nintendo and Sega and let it lapse in 2020, which means this year’s Olympics is the first without a Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games video game for 17 years.
Producer Lee Cocker, who worked on the series while at marketing company ISM Ltd, told Eurogamer that the IOC “wanted to look at other partners and NFTs and esports.”
"Basically the IOC wanted to bring [it] back to themselves internally and look at other partners so they would get more money," Cocker is quoted as saying.
And that was that, no Mario & Sonic at the Olympics. But, as Eurogamer noted, there is a video game for this year’s Olympics; a free-to-play mobile game from publisher nWay called Olympics Go! Paris 2024, which was also ported to PC via the Epic Games Store. And yes, NFTs are involved, with “nWay's officially licensed, commemorative Paris 2024 NFT Digital Pin collection!"
The Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games series kicked off in 2007 for the Wii with the Beijing 2008 edition, titled Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games followed in 2011, then Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games came out in 2016. There are two Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games titles, one released in 2009, the other in 2013. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 goes down as the final entry in the series.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
