The Olympics Killed Mario & Sonic Series So They Could Explore NFTs and Esports

RIP Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. As you may have noticed, we haven’t had a new Paris addition this time round. Which is a shame because the drag queen from the opening ceremony was one spiky hat away from a very speedy cosplay. 

The licence for those games haven’t been renewed by the International Olympic Committee, and we now know why. It’s because, drum roll please: Money.

That’s according to Lee Cocker, who worked on almost every entry in the series. In an interview with Eurogamer, he said:

“They 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."

Now I get why the IOC would want to look into esports. And it ain’t because it’s what the kids are into. It’s because, drum roll please ... Money. And as of last week, the Olympic Esports Series was born. But NFTs? Apparently, THIS is what they ended up with:

Yep. Digital pins of the Olympic mascot, Phryge (free-juh). Why play a fun game with two of the biggest characters in gaming history when you can buy a pin of this red bird that you can’t actually pin anywhere? Plus, NFT’s were lame back in 2022.  In 2024, they're just straight up embarrassing. 

Now I should play devil’s advocate a little here because the Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games series was kinda going the same way as FIFA/EA FC in that each new entry was essentially the same game as the previous one. 

And each entry sold less too. The 2008 game sold 13 million. 2010 sold 7 million. 2012 sold about 3.5 million. Fast forward to the 2020 edition and it sold less than a million… so in reality, there’s every chance that the IOC just didn’t see value in continuing the partnership… Although we're surprised that THIS is what they released instead.

It's a real shame because I always thought they were fun, family friendly games. George, Louka and Robert played it on our Twitch channel a couple of days ago and I’m not gonna lie; I was a little insulted that they didn’t invite me. 

That was until I found out they weren’t playing the one on the Wii, where the sprint just involved aggressively flapping the wii mote until you had carpal tunnel. 

But I guess it just goes to show what happens when you rest on your laurels. It’s a shame we’re not just getting straight-up Olympics games on consoles any more. Hit up the comments if you remember those.