Today, Sega and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) revealed a new multi-year agreement combining Sonic the Hedgehog and the Olympic brand. The partnership will celebrate both brands, featuring numerous merchandise collections to accompany what they are calling the “Five Rings” collaboration.
A sneak peek at the upcoming “Five Rings” collaboration can be seen below, featuring the Olympic rings with a supersonic Sonic the Hedgehog amongst the logo. According to the IOC, the custom art highlights the connection with Sonic and the core Olympic values, including excellence, respect, and friendship.
When commenting on the event, Sega President and COO Shuji Utsumi talked about how important the project was for them:
“We’re committed to fostering respectful and inclusive communities across the globe at SEGA,” said Utsumi. “Partnering with the International Olympic Committee allows us to bring those values to the forefront, especially with the Five Rings program, and celebrate the innovative and diverse spirit both of these brands promote.”
The Blue Blur and the IOC actually already have quite the working history together, as a video game, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, was released to celebrate that year’s version of the event. In it, players used their favorite Nintendo and Sega characters to compete in the same event that took place in real life, making for quite the interesting visual of seeing Wario race Sonic in the 400m dash.
This is one of the many Olympic Games collections, which started back in 2007 with the Beijing edition. There is no word on if this means there will be a new version of the game, but signs point to it being likely.
For more information on this and everything else to do with Sonic the Hedgehog, Sega, and the Olympics, be sure to check back to Simulation Daily for updates.
