Nintendo Breaks One Of Its Best Traditions With The 2024 Olympics
Nintendo has its fair share of franchises that have fallen by the wayside over the years, but when it comes to power players like games, the company can be surprisingly consistent about keeping up traditions. From the obvious heavy hitters like to a number of RPGs and sports-themed spin-offs, the odds are that any reasonably successful game starring the intrepid plumber will get its fair share of sequels. One of his most interesting roles might be coming to an end, however, and it's ultiamtely not that much of a surprise.
When it comes to oddball Nintendo exclusives, few things feel more out of left field than the franchise. Although the games are developed by SEGA, not Nintendo, Mario still gets top billing, and they only show up on Nintendo systems. It's a collaboration that would have seemed inconceivable during the heights of the mascot and console wars in the 90s, and it's still a bit bizarre that the biggest collaboration between Mario and Sonic is based around the Olympics of all things.
Mario games are almost always good, but some disappointing decisions led to a period where the franchise wasn't living up to its full potential.
Although the Paris 2024 Olympic Games are ongoing, Mario and Sonic aren't taking any trip to them this year, possibly putting a quiet and unceremonious end to the franchise. The duo already missed the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, but 2024 marks the first time since 2004 that the pair hasn't united for the big summer event.
Game reporter Stephen Totilo mentioned asking SEGA for clarification on why the series isn't returning on Twitter, a query that apparently received no response. When applying Occam's razor to the situation, however, the simplest explanation is likely that the sales just weren't high enough to justify such a high-profile collaboration. The VGSales database of franchise sales and revenue shows a general pattern of decline across the franchise, with the worst-performing entry,, coming in under a tenth of
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