Speculation has grown among gamers after a listing for a "Client Programmer" by Japanese company Sega specified criteria including programming work in game development engines Unity4 and Unreal.

The advertisement also contained links to the Sonic website and the official Tokyo 2020 video games website. 

Sega first published Olympic themed Mario and Sonic video games for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

There were further releases for London 2012, Rio 2016 and the Olympics in Tokyo, which were postponed to 2021.

Special editions were also produced for the Winter Olympics at Vancouver in 2010 and Sochi 2014.

The characters have always been popular and in Tokyo's Handover sequence at the 2016 Olympics, the late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe appeared dressed as Super Mario on stage at the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro.

It is thought possible that Sega will repeat their Tokyo 2020 strategy by releasing a Mario and Sonic themed game alongside another official Olympic video game.

For the Games in the Japanese capital, this was called Olympic Games Tokyo 2020: The Official Video Game and gave players the option to change the costumes worn by the characters participating in the sports events.

Sega have been long-standing partners of the Olympics since producing a special edition for Barcelona 1992.

Sonic the Hedgehog had first appeared in a computer game in 1991 and Mario was first seen in 1985.

There is further speculation that Sonic will appear as a Lego character later in 2023.