By Alimat Aliyeva

For the past few decades, the official video games of the Olympics have been released with Mario and Sonic and have been exclusive to Nintendo devices. This year it's different, Azernews reports.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) refused to cooperate with Nintendo and Sega within the framework of the long-term series of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, deciding to bet on NFT and esports.

Lee Coker, who worked on each game of the series, believes that the IOC is simply looking for new partners to increase profits. The last part of the series — Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 — was released in 2019. Currently, there is only one licensed game about the Olympic Games in Paris — shareware Olympics Go! Paris 2024 from nWay.

The Mario & Sonic series of games has six parts released over 12 years. It is unknown whether the IOC will continue this franchise.