The Paris 2024 Olympics are the first summer Olympics in thirty years without a console video game…

The Paris 2024 Olympics will be the first summer games in more than thirty years without an official console video game. Since Olympic Gold on the Sega Genesis / Mega Drive in 1992, every Summer Olympic game has had an official premium video game release.

Most recently, Sega was the custodian of the official Olympic video games, releasing the most official video games since 2007, including the Mario & Sonic spin-offs.

Sega’s most recent Olympic video games were Tokyo 2020 – The Official Video Game and Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. Both were released in 2019.

Premium video game releases for the Olympics before the Paris 2024 Olympics were:

• Hyper Olympic ’84 (1984 / Konami / arcade)
• Olympic Gold (1992 / Tiertex / Genesis)
• Olympic Summer Games (1996 / Tiertex / SNES, PSX, Genesis, 3DO)
• Sydney 2000 (2000 / ATD / PSX, PC, Dreamcast)
• Athens 2004 (2004 / Eurocom / PS2, PC)
• Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (2007 / Sega / Wii, DS)
• Beijing 2008 (2008 / Eurocom / PS3, X360, PC)
• London 2012 (2012 / Sega / PS3, X360, PC)
• Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games (2011 / Sega / Wii, 3DS)
• Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games (2016 / Sega / Wii U, 3DS)
• Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 (2019 / Sega / Switch)
• Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 – The Official Video Game (2019 / Sega / PS4, XBO, Switch, PC)

The only game for Paris 2024 is the free-to-play mobile Olympics Go!

The developer is nWay, which says the game will feature microtransactions and officially licensed “memorable” NFTs.

Speaking to Le Monde, Seattle University communications and media professor Christopher Paul claimed that the lack of premium Olympic spending this year was primarily an economic issue.

“Sports games are extremely time-sensitive products that are only bought at the start of the sporting season. With Olympic video games, it’s even worse: The publisher only has a two-month window every four years during which it can hope to sell it,” he said.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) recently announced that it has signed a 12-year agreement to host the Olympic esports games in Saudi Arabia.

Source: Le Monde