Mario & Sonic Olympic Games Were Shut Down Because of NFTs

When the 2024 Olympics commenced in Paris last week, many Nintendo and SEGA fans were left wondering why their beloved characters, Mario and Sonic, were absent from France's capital and did not participate in the sporting event as part of the Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games crossover game series, which began all the way back in 2007 and has featured dedicated titles for the Beijing 2008, Vancouver 2010, London 2012, Sochi 2014, Rio 2016, and Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

While some were quick to assume that it was SEGA and Nintendo's decision not to join the Games, it was recently revealed that gaming heavyweights had nothing to do with it. Instead, it was entirely the choice of the International Olympic Committee, which did not renew the license to produce Mario & Sonic Olympic video games after 2020, effectively canceling the series.

As stated by Lee Cocker, a Game Developer who worked on nearly every game in the series, in an interview with Eurogamer, the Mario and Sonic Olympic games were discontinued in favor of 2020's hottest topics – Esports and, forgive me for uttering this acronym, NFTs.

As you may have already guessed, the decision to ditch the beloved characters and bet on The-Next-Big-Thing in the form of NFTs was driven purely by financial motives, with Cocker revealing that the IOC "wanted to bring [it] back to themselves internally and look at other partners so they would get more money."

When it comes to Esports, it seems that there has indeed been some progress on that front, with the International Olympic Committee joining forces with the National Olympic Committee of Saudi Arabia earlier this month to make Esports a part of the Olympics, with the first real Olympic Esports Games set to be held in 2025.

As for that other part of the IOC's money-making plan, after ending its contract with two of the biggest developers in the world, the committee partnered with a small studio nWay to create Olympics Go! Paris 2024, a free Olympic Games-themed simulator game for mobile and PC that you probably never heard about.

Ignoring the tone-deaf nature of promoting NFTs in 2024, the game in question allows one to claim a "commemorative Paris 2024 NFT Digital Pin showcasing the Paris 2024 mascot holding a flag and waving". Considering the IOC's other decisions for the Paris 2024 Olympics outside the gaming industry, it seems Mario and Sonic dodged a King Bill by not participating in the event.

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