Olympics reportedly dropped Mario and Sonic games in favour of mobile, NFTs
The long-running and historic partnership between Nintendo and Sega to create Olympics video games reportedly ended in 2020 when the event's organisers sought opportunities elsewhere.
Lee Cocker, who served as executive producer on multiple Mario & Sonic Olympics titles, told Eurogamer the International Olympics Committee allowed the licensing deal to lapse as it "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 added.
The 2024 Summer Olympics kicked off in Paris last week, but there was no Mario & Sonic game available in time for the event to begin – the first time this has happened since the original released in 2007 to tie in with the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.
Over the past two decades, there have been four Mario & Sonic tie-ins for the Summer Olympics, plus two for the Winter Olympics.
This year, instead of a Nintendo/Sega title, the IOC has released Olympics Go! Paris 2024, a free-to-play mobile and PC title developed by nWay, which has previously worked on various Power Rangers games.
Olympics Go! allows players to compete in 12 sports, and unlock NFTs from the Paris 2024 Digital Pin collection.
The original Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games was announced back in March 2007 and marked the first time the two mascots – once arch-rivals in the 1990s console war – appeared in a game together.
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