You might have noticed Mario and Sonic aren't competing at the Paris Olympics. That's because the International Olympic Committee (IOC) ended its long-running partnership with Nintendo and Sega, the creators of the Mario and Sonic video games, which since 2007 has spawned six titles for Nintendo platforms — four for each iteration of the Summer Games and two for the Winter Games. A 2024 version was "not feasible" because of the tight timelines in the wake of the postponed 2020 Tokyo Games, the IOC said in a statement to CBC News.
The IOC is instead focusing on NFTs and esports. This time it partnered with the San Francisco- and Seoul-based company nWay to create Olympics Go! Paris 2024 , a free-to-play smartphone game which includes NFTs users can claim. The move makes sense to one industry expert.
For the people that are asking there will be no @MarioSonicGames for @Paris2024 the franchise finished with #MarioAndSonic at the #OlympicGames @Tokyo2020 I know because I worked on all the games in the franchise. #Olympics #PARIS2024 #videogames #gaming #esports #Nintendo #Sega pic.twitter.
com/o5OPEksF5G — @leecocker The IOC likely got a "better offer financially, and opted for breaking the tradition of giving the Olympic license to these Japanese companies said Serkan Toto, the CEO of Kantan Games, an independent game industry consultancy that focuses on the Japanese market. Toto also thinks the popularity of mobile games contributed to the decision. Those games make up "half.