Mario & Sonic video game serie have been stopped

[Astral_lion02]

It seams that the Mario & Sonic video game serie have been stopped after the Tokyo 2020 game.

For the people that are asking there will be no @MarioSonicGames for @Paris2024 the franchise finished with #MarioAndSonic at the #OlympicGames @Tokyo2020 I know because I worked on all the games in the franchise. #Olympics #PARIS2024 #videogames #gaming #esports #Nintendo #Sega

The reason is Sega loosing the licenced agrement from the Olympic committee.

This explain why there haven't been a single Olympic games from them for Paris 2024 unlike for Tokyo 2020 when they released "Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 - The Official Video Game" on all platforms in addition to "Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020" .

The current owner of the licenced agrement is for some nWayGames who seams to have released the only official video game for Paris 2024 Olympic Games: "Olympics™ GO! Paris 2024" , a F2P avaible on IOS, Android and Epic games store.

 

[Roger Rabbit]

I enjoyed them in short bursts, especially on DS and 3DS, but I don’t think many people will miss the Mario and Sonic series.

Pity there were so few winter Olympic games in the series. Sochi 2014 didn’t even get a 3DS release.

Anyone have any sales data for the series?

 

[Vena]

Well I guess that explains why there's no game this year. I wonder if it's just been sold to highest bidder/bottom barrel IP exploitation.

 

[Astral_lion02]

I enjoyed them in short bursts, especially on DS and 3DS, but I don’t think many people will miss the Mario and Sonic series.

Pity there were so few winter Olympic games in the series. Sochi 2014 didn’t even get a 3DS release.

Anyone have any sales data for the series?

The Mario & Sonic video game serie sold more than 30M including 15M from the first one from 2007:

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games(2007) sold 15 million copies.The last reported figure was 10 million copies sold by July 2008.

From the same profile.Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games series sold 30 million copies to date.The last known number was 25 million copies sold.

This 30M number don't include the Switch entry (Tokyo 2020)
It's also possible that Rio 2016 is not include as the guy left Sega in 2014.

 

[fiendcode]

Big loss for Sega honestly, this was their biggest series since it started. So huge even Nagoshi couldn't squash it.

 

[Lite_Agent]

I wonder if it's just been sold to highest bidder/bottom barrel IP exploitation.

I'm guessing SEGA got burned with the whole Tokyo 2020 mess and decided it just wasn't worth it anymore. Increased dev costs + Olympics licence + Nintendo licence (and no way Nintendo didn't make them pay dearly for using Mario characters) + no way to go multiplat for the Mario entry.

 

[Aostia82]

I don’t think many people will miss the Mario and Sonic series.

Going by their sales, I disagree
And SEGA economics surely are going to miss those sales lol

 

[Vena]

I'm guessing SEGA got burned with the whole Tokyo 2020 mess and decided it just wasn't worth it anymore. Increased dev costs + Olympics licence + Nintendo licence (and no way Nintendo didn't make them pay dearly for using Mario characters) + no way to go multiplat for the Mario entry.

Probably a fair assessment.

 

[Roger Rabbit]

Going by their sales, I disagree
And SEGA economics surely are going to miss those sales lol

Indeed - the series has sold millions more than I had imagined. I don’t see much praise for the games from either gaming press or members of gaming discussion sites, but they clearly found an audience.

 

[Kirby64]

Obviously the original Wii game and several of it's sequels sold incredibly well, but do we know the sales for the more recent titles?

Indeed - the series has sold millions more than I had imagined. I don’t see much praise for the games from either gaming press or members of gaming discussion sites, but they clearly found an audience.

Seems like it was essentially some odd mix of a sports and party game... and both of those genres have incredibly high sales potential with the right ips/events (and Mario is king in the party game genre) - combine that with a relevant sporting event and some very recognizable ips, the games were at least originally practically guaranteed smash hits.

 

[MegaXZero]

I'm guessing SEGA got burned with the whole Tokyo 2020 mess and decided it just wasn't worth it anymore. Increased dev costs + Olympics licence + Nintendo licence (and no way Nintendo didn't make them pay dearly for using Mario characters) + no way to go multiplat for the Mario entry.

IOC didn’t want to renew the license and wanted to look at going with other partners.

Looks like a really bad choice by the IOC, which tracks with their history of bad choices.

 

[Lite_Agent]

Looks like a really bad choice by the IOC, which tracks with their history of bad choices.

Oh? Fair enough, then (though I'm assuming the reason they went with another partner in the first place is because said partner was ready to pay more).

Not sure why they didn't go with multiple partners, it's arguably best way to maximise $$$.

 

[Rellik]

Looks like a really bad choice by the IOC, which tracks with their history of bad choices.

It makes sense, even with all the licenses and development time the series should be highly profitable to Sega. But the IOC made a greedy movement like FIFA and now this year we have a F2P game only

 

[Hero of Legend]

Honestly, just get ND Cube to make a single Mario Party and then a Mario & Sonic (Sports?) Party game a gen. We know Mario Party can keep a company running on its own with just one game nowadays, plus ND Cube have really upped their game this gen. I feel they could take over and do cool shit here, hell Hudson DID also make Sonic Shuffle after all, though I don't know yet how many folks ended up at ND Cube.

 

[awng782]

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games is an IP that saw rapid diminishing returns after the blockbuster 2008 debut entry, but all of the titles were still multi-million sellers and I feel pretty confident they all (even the 3DS and Wii U entries) made more money than whatever the current crop of Olympic video games are making right now.

 

[Astral_lion02]

Obviously the original Wii game and several of it's sequels sold incredibly well, but do we know the sales for the more recent titles?

In Japan sales of the Tokyo 2020 games were really good (especially legs) with 163k copies sold in 2019, 200k in 2020 and 97k in 2021.
LTD as of late 2023 is over 500k.
It's the best selling Sega game on Switch in Japan.

In France Tokyo 2020 also had good results with 120k in 2019 and 140k in 2020 for a total of 260k.
I think that including sales from 2021 to 2023 it's close to 350k LTD.

Obviously it's not anywhere close to what sold the first game but when the addition of just France and Japan retail sales give over 800k, WW sales are not going to be ridiculous.

Maybe it's over 4M by now.

 

[RPG_Fanatic]

I enjoyed the OST remixes and the silly dream events that came from this series. I am sad to see it at an end.

 

[Vena]

Looks like a really bad choice by the IOC, which tracks with their history of bad choices.

Okay so chances of it being farmed off to highest bidder with probably IP exploitation as the only goal seems more likely! Anyone know anything about the mobile game?

 

[Lite_Agent]

Anyone know anything about the mobile game?

Reviews are surprisingly good on the App Stores at least.

And looking at the official website (linked in OP), there's (minor?) NFT stuff.

So yeah, IOC won gold medal in Greed

 

[ILikeFeet]

Honestly, just get ND Cube to make a single Mario Party and then a Mario & Sonic (Sports?) Party game a gen. We know Mario Party can keep a company running on its own with just one game nowadays, plus ND Cube have really upped their game this gen. I feel they could take over and do cool shit here, hell Hudson DID also make Sonic Shuffle after all, though I don't know yet how many folks ended up at ND Cube.

Why ND Cube when Sega had a capable team?

 

[Hero of Legend]

Why ND Cube when Sega had a capable team?

ND Cube just seems much better at making high-quality party games. None of the Olympic games seemed anywhere as good honestly.

 

[Vena]

Reviews are surprisingly good on the App Stores at least.

And looking at the official website (linked in OP), there's (minor?) NFT stuff.

So yeah, IOC won gold medal in Greed

So perhaps not a totally phoned in cash grab but NFT does bring me pause.

Regardless, it is an IOC decision.

 

[cw_sasuke]

Nintendo doesnt need Sonic nor the Olympia license to sell millions of Mario related Party games every year - so this isnt too surprising.

If the Mario n Sonic series pops back up again i hope its in another genre.

 

[Koni]

It's... an interesting loss, though not a big one. On one hand, it's not like Mario nor Sonic really needed the IOC anyways, and from IOC's end, moving more towards eSports (likely at the behest of the Saudi royal family considering the eSports Olympic games and where they're taking place) is more lucrative in the long run. Gaming's certainly become a sport in itself, after all. On the other hand, though, we certainly lose something unique here. Even if the novelty wore off and it wasnt exactly what many were expecting, we got an honest to god Mario and Sonic crossover game. 15 million copies is no joke. I kind of hope Mario and Sonic do a new crossover that isn't Smash, even if it's unlikely.

 

[Roger Rabbit]

I imagine the first two games sold very well because the DS and Wii both had a large user base when they were released, and it was, at the time, huge gaming news that two icons of the 16-bit platform wars would be appearing in a game together for the first time.

The last game probably did very well because it was based on an Olympics held in Tokyo, and Japan is such a huge territory for the Switch.

I actually thought a Paris game might be a good bit of filler for this reasonably dry release spell (by Switch standards) but it wasn’t to be.

 

[tobinator]

While it's certainly a big loss for SEGA financially, as a fan I can't help but sigh in relief.

The amount of staff and resources these games took to produce every 2-4 years from SEGA's divisions was quite large. For example, the director of M&S 2020 finally went back to working on 3D Sonic games after 13 years of Olympics purgatory. It was a similar story for many other employees who now can get to work on more creative endeavors.

And of course, if SEGA can continue handling the Sonic IP well enough for a while, I'm sure Nintendo would be down to make a proper cross-over some day.

 

[Bruno MB]

Now that Mario & Sonic series is dead I will give some stats about its sales in the Spanish market.

The full series has sold a total of 1,05 million units.

The top 3 best selling titles are Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games with 330.000 units, followed by Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games with 285.000 and Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 in third place.

It is quite surprising the Winter game outsold the Summer game, the sales breakdown for both titles were roughly Nintendo Wii 60%, Nintendo DS 40%.

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 has been a good return to form after Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games saw a big decline with respect to London 2012. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 sales are 2,5 times bigger than Rio 2016.

 

[AruanaRiva]

IOC is just another FIFA kek. Being absurdly greedy and betting on money pit NFT or asking for too much money from EA.

Only to end up getting nothing there.

Mario and Sonic has always been multi million seller that is embraced by so many audience that choosing to abandon that for NFT is such short sighted decision.

 

[Drblitzk]

Now that Mario & Sonic series is dead I will give some stats about its sales in the Spanish market.

The full series has sold a total of 1,05 million units.

The top 3 best selling titles are Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games with 330.000 units, followed by Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games with 285.000 and Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 in third place.

It is quite surprising the Winter game outsold the Summer game, the sales breakdown for both titles were roughly Nintendo Wii 60%, Nintendo DS 40%.

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 has been a good return to form after Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games saw a big decline with respect to London 2012. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 sales are 2,5 times bigger than Rio 2016.

Surprising that Winter Olympics is the best selling, and not the first outing, wonder if that is true for the RotW. What is not surprising is that Rio is the one that saw a big decline, considering the platforms it was available.

 

[AruanaRiva]

Surprising that Winter Olympics is the best selling, and not the first outing, wonder if that is true for the RotW. What is not surprising is that Rio is the one that saw a big decline, considering the platforms it was available.

Winter Olympic got bigger marketing if i remember correctly. Also the vibe of the game where it is very pristine white and clear blue from snow and sky really attract the eyes.

 

[Drblitzk]

Winter Olympic got bigger marketing if i remember correctly. Also the vibe of the game where it is very pristine white and clear blue from snow and sky really attract the eyes.

Maybe, but with the first game being the first Mario and Sonic collaboration, felt like a true gaming event (it came even before Sonic appeared in Smash Bros), and also I feel for this type of games, how excited people are for the actual event they are based on, greatly affects their performance.

It must have been uber disheartening for Sega what happened with the 2020 Olympics, I feel it was poised to be a way greater deal than what it ended up being, when Mario felt like it was going to be the unofficial mascot of the Tokyo Olympics, only for Covid completely wreck the event, probably the only game that wishes covid never happened, lmao.

 

[Dalthien]

Now that Mario & Sonic series is dead I will give some stats about its sales in the Spanish market.

The full series has sold a total of 1,05 million units.

The top 3 best selling titles are Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games with 330.000 units, followed by Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games with 285.000 and Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 in third place.

It is quite surprising the Winter game outsold the Summer game, the sales breakdown for both titles were roughly Nintendo Wii 60%, Nintendo DS 40%.

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 has been a good return to form after Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games saw a big decline with respect to London 2012. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 sales are 2,5 times bigger than Rio 2016.

Interesting numbers about the winter/summer comparisons, and the 2020 vs 2016 comparison as well. Thanks for sharing!