The Paris 2024 Olympics is the first Summer Games not to have an official console video game tie-in in more than 30 years.
Since the release of Olympic Gold on the Sega Genesis / Mega Drive in 1992, every Summer Olympic Games since has had an official premium video game release.
Most recently, Sega has been the steward of the official Olympics video games, releasing most official video games since 2007, including the Mario & Sonic spin-offs.
Sega’s most recent Olympics video games were Tokyo 2020 – The Official Video Game and Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, both released in 2019.
The official Summer Olympics premium video game tie-ins 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 free-to-play mobile title Olympics Go! By developer nWay, which features microtransactions and officially licensed “commemorative” NFTs.
Speaking to Le Monde (Paywalled), Seattle University professor of communications and media, Christopher Paul, claimed that this year’s missing premium Olympics release was primarily a matter of economics.
“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 a 12-year agreement to host the Olympic Esports Games in Saudi Arabia.