New Olympics game in development at Sega

A new job listing from Sega has seemingly confirmed that a new Olympics video game is in development for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Sega has seemingly accidentally confirmed that a new Olympics video game is in development for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

A recent job listing on Sega’s website for a Client Programmer goes over a number of requirements for the role, including programming work in game development engines Unity and Unreal. Notably, however, the listing links to the websites for both Sonic Channel and Olympic Games Tokyo 2020: The Official Video Game (thanks, TheGamer).

Sega has been a longstanding development partner for the Olympics, developing a number of tie-in games throughout the last 15 years. The developer and publisher has focused largely on the Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games series, which was first developed for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The series has since spanned to cover every Olympic Games since, with releases for the 2012 London Games, the 2016 Rio Games, and the 2020 Tokyo Games. The series has also seen releases for two Winter Olympics, the 2010 Vancouver Games and the 2014 Sochi Games.

The Mario and Sonic Olympic games have been moderately popular as multiplayer party games, so it’s not particularly surprising that another one might be in development for the Paris Games.

Sega Sonic and Mario Olympics games have been going strong since 2008. Picture: Sega

Sega also developed a separate game, Olympic Games Tokyo 2020: The Official Video Game, which was intended to be somewhat of a more realistic experience, and featured no other video game characters. It’s possible that Sega will use the same strategy for the 2024 Olympics by producing two different styles of game as it did in 2020.

Sega’s flagship Sonic the Hedgehog series has seen somewhat of a renaissance in recent years, starting with the release of the retro-inspired Sonic Mania in 2017. Mania, which was developed by Christian Whitehead and Headcannon games, was well-received by the press, who praised the game for its fantastic level design and solid retro gameplay. It became the best-reviewed Sonic game in over a decade.

While Sega’s second Olympics game in 2020 was billed as being more realistic, it did include silly costume options. Picture: Sega

Since then, the series has gotten a new, open-world 3D game in Sonic Frontiers, which was released to mixed but overall positive reviews. A new Sonic the Hedgehog Netflix show arrived in December, and two live-action movies have been generally well-received.

The series has become so popular that Sonic the Hedgehog might be getting Lego this year, with Lego fan blog and reliable industry insider PromoBricks reportedly leaking five new Sonic Lego sets due to release in 2023.

Written by Oliver Brandt on behalf of GLHF.