SEGA Job Listing Hints at Potential New Mario & Sonic Olympic Game

If a recent job listing from Sega is anything to go by—and it usually is—it appears that the company may be working on a new Mario & Sonic Olympic game.

The details:

• A brand new job listing for a “Client Programmer” has found its way onto Sega’s Japanese career site. The translated description states that Sega are currently looking for a candidate with “past development experience for PS4, XboxOne, or above, or on high-end titles for the Nintendo Switch or PC” who has “worked with C++ for a minimum of three years”. The listing also specifies that “action game development experience” and “Unreal Engine 4 skills” are welcome.
• The listing notably includes links to the page for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics video game as well as to the Sonic Channel, hinting at the return of the crossover franchise for the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics after its absence from the 2022 Winter Olympics. With Sonic having his hands full in 2022 after starring in the comedy series Sonic Prime, the sequel to 2020’s Sonic movie, and open-world platformer Sonic Frontiers, it’s understandable that Sega opted to skip making a tie-in for the Beijing games.
• If the title is indeed in development, it’s likely to see a release on the Nintendo Switch with an arcade version to follow, similar to the latest 2019 entry. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see a new release sometime in 2023 or early 2024, as the series has typically released its games well in advance of the Olympics to better capitalise on the event.
• The Mario & Sonic series of games, which feature characters from both the Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog franchises competing in Olympic-style events, has been popular for both Sega and Nintendo. The first game in the series was released in 2007, and there have been several instalments since then, with the most recent being Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, which shipped in 2019.

What else is going on at Sega?

• Sonic Frontiers will be receiving multiple free DLC updates throughout 2023 with new modes, characters, and even a new story being confirmed in a roadmap posted to social media.
• Sega of America has opened a new headquarters in Irvine, California which now houses all of Sega’s publishing departments as well as its subsidiary, ATLUS, the studio behind the popular Persona series.
• In an interview with Famitsu, Sonic Team’s Takashi Iizuka confirmed that there is “a lot more” Sonic on the way with Sega aiming to “maintain that momentum” from a packed release schedule in 2022. You can read the entire translated interview here, courtesy of Gematsu.