There will be no Mario and Sonic games at the 2024 Paris Olympics as the International Olympic Committee ditches long-standing partnerships with Nintendo and Sega to pursue NFTs and eSports, according to a new report.
accordingly EurogamerThe International Olympic Committee failed to extend the licensing agreement with Nintendo and Sega, allowing it to expire in 2020, meaning this year’s Olympics will be the first in 17 years without a Mario and Sonic game at the Olympics.
Producer Lee Coker, who worked on the series while at marketing firm ISM Ltd, told Eurogamer that the IOC “wanted to look at other partners, NFT tokens and esports.”
“Originally the IOC wanted to bring [it] “They’re going to have to go back in on themselves and look for other partners so they can get more money,” Coker was quoted as saying.
And that’s it, no Mario and Sonic at the Olympics. But as Eurogamer points out, there is a video game for this year’s Olympics; This is a free mobile game from publisher nWay called Olympic Go! Paris 2024, which was ported to PC via the Epic Game Store. And yes, nWay has NFTs with the “Officially Licensed Commemorative Digital NFT Collection for Paris 2024”!
Mario & Sonic at the Olympics series was released for the Wii in 2007 under the title Mario & Sonic at the Olympics in Beijing 2008. This was followed by Mario and Sonic in 2011 at the 2012 London Olympics and then Mario and Sonic at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Winter Olympics has two Mario and Sonic titles, one released in 2009 and the other in 2013. The latest release in the Sonic series at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Wesley is IGN’s UK news editor. You can follow him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can find Wesley here [email protected] or secretly at [email protected] to communicate
