Nintendo Ends Support for Mario Kart Tour

September 15, 2023, 6:58 am | Read time: 3 minutes

Nintendo boasts many major franchises: Zelda, Pokémon, and of course Mario–in all its forms. However, the Japanese company is now ending support for a well-known Mario game.

The game in question is “Mario Kart Tour.” Officially, it will end on October 4, with no new content being released for the mobile game. But what exactly does this mean, and are there perhaps hints of further planned actions by Nintendo?

Mario Kart Tour Gets No More Content

The concept actually sounds quite promising: the popular, family-friendly racing game Mario Kart as a mobile game. In 2019, “Mario Kart Tour” launched, following the gameplay of the original Nintendo games. Players can choose well-known characters from the Mario universe–most notably Mario himself, Luigi, Yoshi, Peach, and others–as “racers.”

Players then compete against others in a go-kart-like race, where the goal is not only to master the track but also to collect various useful items along the way.

For more variety, Nintendo regularly provided new content such as rewards or track profiles. However, this will end on October 4. The company informed players of its decision without explanation. The end of Mario Kart Tour was only made known through a post on X (formerly Twitter), shared by some affected users. On Nintendo’s own site, there is no indication of the planned move.

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No More Interest in Mobile Games?

The exact reasons remain speculative. While the game did not receive overwhelmingly large critiques, it still managed to build a certain fanbase. Especially in its launch year, 2019, the title achieved some success.

Apparently not enough for Nintendo; this is also suggested by the business figures. The report for the past year 2022 shows that the mobile games sector accounts for only a very small part of Nintendo’s revenue.

Thus, the last content update for “Mario Kart Tour” will likely come on September 20. Then the Anniversary Tour will start. After that, the tours will consist only of recycled content.

Potential Consequences of Mario Kart Tour’s End

Now there is speculation about whether more is behind this. The content for the mobile game “Mario Kart Tour” is based on that of its big brother for the Switch console: “Mario Kart 8: Deluxe.” Since the mobile offshoot is no longer supported, the console game might soon face the same fate. This would be unusual, as it is the most successful game for the Nintendo Switch.

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This, in turn, fuels speculation about a new console generation. Only a hardware change seems logical in this light. The next Switch seems to have progressed so far that Nintendo was able to show a prototype behind closed doors at Gamescom.

Additionally, it could mark the beginning of the end of Nintendo’s ambitions in the mobile gaming sector. So far, the company’s success in this area has been limited. The Switch console itself is sometimes in direct competition with mobile phones as a gaming medium.

This article is a machine translation of the original German version of TECHBOOK and has been reviewed for accuracy and quality by a native speaker. For feedback, please contact us at info@techbook.de.