Summary
As many have noted, Paris 2024 is the first Olympic Games since Beijing 2008tonotget a Mario & Sonic title. This sports series has been a mainstay since the first release in 2007, spawning three mainline sequels, as well as two tie-ins for the Winter Games.
However, it looks like skipping the Paris games will not be a one-off. According to one of the former developers, theMario & Sonic Olympic Gamesseries is gone for good, as the licence is now in the hands of another studio.
Don’t Expect Anymore Mario & Sonic At The Olympic Games Titles
This comes from Lee Cocker, who addressed the absence of another Mario & Sonic game over on Twitter. According to his LinkedIn, Cocker worked as part of the team that assisted the Mario & Sonic devs with making an Olympics-themed game, so he would have a good deal of insight into the future of the series - or lack thereof.
In a follow-up, Cocker says the licence to make Olympics-related tie-in games is now with the studio nWay Games. This studio describes itself as a “pioneer” of free-to-play and Web3 games, so quite different from what we were getting whenSegawas at the helm for all those years.
It’s a pretty disappointing end to a much-loved series if this is the case. Of course, it is possible that the licence will change hands once again by the time the next Olympic Games are on, but from what’s being said here, we shouldn’t get our hopes up too much.
The last game in the series, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, launched on theNintendo Switchin 2019. Since they launch a year before the actual games kick off - and the games take time to make - the licence would have to be restored quickly to get one out before the next one in 2028.
