Report: The International Olympics Committee is abandoning Mario & Sonic franchise in favour of NFTs

[John Elden Ring]

The International Olympics Committee walked away from its partnership with Nintendo and Sega for the long-running Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games series in order to explore deals with new partners, NFTs and esports, Eurogamer understands.

As the real-life Olympics gets underway in Paris, there's been discussion online of there being no new Mario & Sonic tie-in for this summer's Games, for the first time in almost two decades.

Speaking with Eurogamer, a veteran behind the series has now said the decision to end the popular Mario & Sonic franchise rested with the IOC, which chose not to renew its licensing deal with Nintendo and Sega, and allowed it to lapse in 2020.

Source

 

[Old Gamer]

NFTs? That doesn't sound shady at all...

 

[Zzero]

Technically its just a deal with Sega, isn't it? They both develop and publish it and I know there was a mobile version that stripped out the Mario characters one year. Anyways, it was obvious for awhile now that something had happened, since no game was announced or released.

 

[CrackmanNL]

I kinda forgot it existed, seems like the series has declined since the Wii era, cause I haven't heard anything about the Tokyo 2020 charting despite Switch base.

Checked the sales and this from the VGS wiki, declined heavily indeed since the Wii.

Mario & Sonic at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games ​

1,333,643​

Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games ​

1,175,333​

Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games​

1,222,721​

Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games ​

3,738,022​

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games. ​

6,979,257​

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. ​

13,060,000​

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[Hatefield]

I guess this is the problem of having the Olympics every 4 years. They are behind with 4 years in trends.

 

[2spooky5me]

Those "official" Olympic games during the PS2-PS3 era, some of them aren't that bad.
I actually like the Mario & Sonic and that recent SEGA one (the one with the Astronaut on the cover).

Weird change by the IOC.