Am I jumping the gun or would Sega have announced a new Winter Olympics by now? That and Ubisift's Steep is an official Olympic product as far as their new DLC goes.
When I saw that Steep DLC I thought maybe this might lead to Mario & Sonic...and Rabbids at the Olympic games. But nah. Maybe they are skipping the winter one this time. *shrugs*
Sega has actually struck an exclusive deal with the IOC....to make games for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. I think the fact they're only gunning for that (for the obvious reason of the next Summer Olympics being in Japan) and not having an installment for the Pyongyang 2018 year (and thus allowing Ubisoft to pick up the license for that year) is Sega now seeing the writing on the wall. It's been roughly a decade since the first Mario and Sonic Olympics game (Beijing 2008) came onto the scene, and throughout these ten years we've seen a clear case of diminishing returns for each sequel, which (outside of Rio 2016, which had three years) has been consecutively released every other year. The first game sold 11+ million, the second sold 6+ million, the third sold 3+ million, and that title was the last one to show up on their IR reports. I presume they only gave Rio 2016 a shot because Sochi 2014 was a Wii U exclusive; but even giving it a 3DS installment this time (which was actually released first before the Wii U version) and an additional year of development time weren't enough to save it; sales reports of the game that came out from NeoGAF's sales threads signalled both versions of the game bombing hard in sales. Never mind the fact that they initially also made "traditional" Olympic games (remember those?) that were simulation-based and based on real people, but the third one (London 2012) did so poorly it not only led to Sega only making the M&S installments for Olympic tie-in games, it also contributed to the death of Sega development studio in Australia. I presume Tokyo 2020 is likely being done as of a last hurrah for the Mario & Sonic series, and then Sega will move onto something else (unless it sells as good as the first three games, and then the cycle continues again; though that largely depends on how the Switch stands as a viable platform by then). And I wouldn't blame them for doing so; the novelty has long run dry. Let Sega Sports R&D work on something new. And if we do get another Mario & Sonic crossover, let it be something that isn't a party game, whether it be a racing game, an RPG, or even that mythical platformer some of us continue to dream about.
Pyeongchang 2018. South Korea, not Best Korea. =P Other than that, I think you're pretty much spot on. Tokyo 2020 makes sense as a last hurrah given Mario is a mascot and both studios are Japanese.
They should let Sega Sports Japan make something like Virtua Striker after 2020. Olympic Games games are getting really boring, and there aren't any current Arcade-style football games around, so a Virtua Striker game would fill that niche very nicely. There hasn't been a new game in the series since 2006! But that's just my dream version of Sega that actually makes good decision from time to time, in reality they'll either shut the studio down (Sega loves to do that) or turn them into yet another mobile developer :P Also, lol Kimolympics
I was actually thinking about this yesterday. So far only Mario is confirmed among some other characters from different media. But no Sonic and I doubt he is a part of it. You would think the company having the Olympics license would push for their character to be at the announcement.
Everyone: "We really want a Mario and Sonic crossover!" Nintendo and Sega: "Alright, we've heard you, and we're proud to present"
Sega of North Korea - the creator of the smash hit Kim Generations, will make it happen. Spoiler It's only available in the DPRK, so that's why you haven't seen a proper copy of it anywhere else. Anyway, I think the franchise done enough at this point, making endless M&S Olympics games, what else could you do at this point? Other than a proper crossover, and that'll never happen.
Yep. This was really the worst idea ever. "We don't want to go through the trouble of making a platformer, so here's a party game based on an historical sporting event, even though basically all Sonic Characters are superhuman, and would probably win everything, with Bowser being the only real threat!" Like I'm not even trying to dig out the old Mario vs. Sonic Chestnut here. It doesn't make any sense.
Well it's lost its novelty, and it's been exclusive to Nintendo consoles... which you may have noticed haven't had a good track record as of late. (don't quote me 3DS sales, you know exactly what I mean) I would imagine it's exceedingly difficult to make a good Olympics tie-in. I mean how many people have willingly gone out to buy one (that isn't Sonic-related) in the last thirty years?
Best thing to come out of this series of games was the Rio arcade game with the massive joysticks and foot pad. The only problem is the machine is technically alreday out of date due to the numbered year and event location. I wonder how long they'll keep that machine in circulation..
I'm prety sure I said somewhere else on these boards I always thought the Mario Vs Sonic games were a cocktease for something grander but it never happened. Yes Sonic was in Smash and then the 3DS games had a story mode where the Sonic characters were jerks and the Mario characters were overly nice. I thought they would go down the RPG route especially seeing as Sonic Chronicles was released around the time as Superstar Saga(?). Plus the afformentioned 3DS story mode. Never really understood why people wanted a platformer between the two. Probably because Mario games were god like and Sonic games (at the time) were dodgy. Even if I got Mario Kart and Sonic Riders go to the Monaco Grand Prix with Bernie Ecclestone being revealed as the big bad at the end, that would have been enough.
Yeah, I've been wondering for years what's preventing them from doing a "Mario Kart & Sonic All-Stars Racing & Knuckles" crossover racing game, those two franchises are not that different, it could easily work if they do it right. Plus, Sega is actually good at making racing games, in my opinion. I personally LOVE Outrun 2006, but that's another topic.
Agreed. I mean its not like Sega and Nintendo made a racing game together or anything... oh wait I mean you'd either put Sonic and co in karts or put Mario and co in a variety of vehicles. Hell they did that in Double Dash!! I need to stop. I'll get myself excited for nothing.
