Sonic: Mascot Candidate for LA Olympics?
By Ed Hula
Sonic is back under the rings. Watch out, Los Angeles 2028.
Meanwhile, the breakup of the plans for an Olympic level e-sports tournament show the IOC have some ways to go before that happens.
The relationship between a highly developed 21st Century sport and the Olympics has been like oil and water. Both pour easily together. But let the mixture sit and it’s not long before the two substances drift apart. Despite the feverish activity of a few years ago for some sort of integration between the IOC and the world of e-games, plans for an Olympic-branded tournament in Saudi Arabia have ended, at least for now.
Insiders say a lack of progress toward such a competition in 2027, already postponed from 2026, is the reason. Talks involving governance, finance, and program were too many obstacles to overcome.
“The IOC rushed into a deal with Saudi Arabia to host the Olympic Esports Games as soon as possible to capitalize on the trend of gaming (and because the Saudis have the money to foot the bill) but now the bubble is bursting because it’s such a speculative industry with many different parties trying to jump on the trend to no avail,” says one observer familiar with the e-game industry, who could not speak publicly.
The IOC and the Saudi Arabia Olympic and Paralympic Committee signed a pact in 2024 to stage the first Olympic E Sport Games, a 12-year deal. Other than postponing the event from 2025, 2026 to 2027, not much has occurred. The IOC and Saudi NOC acknowledged the impasse a mutually withdrew from the agreement in October. Each says they will go their own way, the IOC still intent on organizing E sport games.
“The IOC, for its part, will develop a new approach to the Olympic Esports Games, taking the feedback from the “Pause and Reflect” process into account, and pursue a new partnership model.
“This approach will be a chance to better fit the Olympic Esports Games to the long-term ambitions of the Olympic Movement and to spread the opportunities presented by the Olympic Esports Games more widely, with the objective of having the inaugural Games as soon as possible,” says an IOC statement.
A spokesman for the IOC would say only that discussions involving the E sports games may have come up in some of the meetings last week in Lausanne of the two dozen commissions for IOC members. The IOC commission on Esports has existed for three years and is led by French NOC president David Lappartient.
Our industry source says the IOC will have a difficult time mounting a credible event, given the advanced state of play already in the gaming world.
“The esports events that have success are the individual events hosted by publishers of the games they own all the rights to (think League of Legends), where they can control all aspects of the event and use the fanbase of that specific game to drive ticket sales and online viewership.
“When other organizations try to take control and use esports for their own financial benefit, the actual gaming community doesn’t care because these organizations have not built a community of gamers that have any interest in watching or participating in their new events,” says our source.
Developing games that meet IOC standards and that appeal to elite gamers has made it difficult for game publishers to bring to market, says Raymond Goldsmith, chairman and CEO of ISM, the company that handled the IOC’s licensing of Sonic and Super Mario games for 25 years, until it ended some five years ago.
“The IOC, as ever, tried to control the intellectual property of the publishers. And at the same time they tried to placate the international federations. The most popular games were considered too violent or not following Olympic values,” he says. Titles that correspond to the sports federations represented in the Olympics are not as popular.
“If the IOC are to be successful with e-games, they have to get real and understand they are not going to get into the hard-core gaming world. It’s just not a fit. It’s a square peg trying to get into a round hole. They are desperately in need of trying to hang on to that network of gamers, that demographic,” he says.
Goldsmith salutes the IOC rethink of the role of e-sports. He suggests a five-continent event organized through the world’s NOCs with top qualifiers coming to the Olympics.
The IOC clearly is not aiming its deal with Sega as a way to woo elite gamers. It’s all about merchandising Sonic, whether it’s with games, apparel or toys. Not to mention online and feature film productions.
Maybe make Sonic the yet-to-be-disclosed mascot for LA 28? With a product line promised for 2026 and Sonic already a proven character, the IOC and LA 28 may have found a mascot magnificent. The SEGA speedster would be tough to catch for any new entry into the glaring spotlight of the Olympics.
SEGA President Shuji Utsumi spoke as if he was recommending Sonic for the mascot opening last month at the announcement of the new deal.
“This collaboration highlights the International Olympic Committee’s commitment to showcasing excellence, unity and perseverance on the global stage, values that Sonic embodies through speed, determination and resilience. It brings together uniquely crafted designs that combine the iconic Olympic rings and Sonic, and we are thrilled to share this exciting initiative with fans worldwide,” the SEGA chief said.
Has LA 28 sultan and media titan Casey Wasserman already signed a deal with Sonic? It’s rumored that the hedgehog has been spotted looking for a bungalow in Beverly Hills. Stay tuned.