During Nintendo's latest Direct presentation on February 16th, one of the announcements was that Mario Kart 8 would be getting a lot of new DLC coming out for the eight year old game (Originally released on the WiiU in 2014 with Deluxe coming out on the Switch three years later). 48 tracks from the series' history would be remastered/remixed over the course of six waves over 2022 and 2023. And all for $24.99.
Now that sounds like a pretty sweet deal right there, and it still arguably is. But even with my initial impressions, something was bugging me about the whole package.
In the roadmap shown in Nintendo's trailer for the booster pass, those 48 courses will be separated into two cups each wave, totaling up to twelve new cups. That's more than what MK8 came out with in its original release and just as much as Deluxe has now.
So if they're putting all that effort in making/remaking all these tracks in this super sized booster... why didn't they just put all that into a Mario Kart 9?
The best reason I can think of for this is simply Mario Kart 8 is still selling pretty well. For anyone who has or is about to get a Nintendo Switch, chances are one of the first titles they would get is MK8 Deluxe. The game is infamous for constantly being in Black Friday Switch bundles every year. And as a result, the game has sold over 40 million copies as of December 2021 according to Nintendo. With these reasons, putting out the booster could be a way to boost interest in the game as well as rake in more sales.
Even with that, I could also see with an established consumer base as big as the Switch's or MK8, that a fantastic Mario Kart 9 could succeed just as well or even better than MK8 Deluxe in the long run. Especially now when games like MK8 or Grand Theft Auto V have been re-released and updated for so long, gamers have become weary of them and are looking to the future with new games. I've seen enough social media posts from people each time a wild Direct approaches wanting to see Mario Kart 9 get announced. And with series like Mario and GTA making bigger and bigger bank each game, imagine how much they would earn releasing those most desired sequels?
(Sidenote: Bringing up the GTA comparison, if Nintendo wanted to soften fans' disappointment/demands after revealing the booster DLC, they could've done what Rockstar did recently and announce that a new mainline Mario Kart title was early in development.)
Even after discussing numbers, we still have what is essentially an entire Mario Kart's amount of content being released over the span of two years. With the series relying on half the tracks being remade courses from the past going all the back to Mario Kart DS in 2005, one idea they could've done was put half of what they were working on for the booster along with brand new tracks for Mario Kart 9. Then, use the other half of that booster to release as DLC cups later as an expansion pass or individually like they did for MK8 originally on the WiiU (Both DLCs individually came out in December 2014 and April 2015). They could even sell the expansion pass under the same price as the booster if they wanted to, with half the courses!
But here we are now. Mario Kart 8's Booster Course Pass with no sign of Mario Kart 9 coming anytime soon. Over the eight years since MK8's release we've had two Mario Kart titles- Mario Kart Tour and Mario Kart Live -come out, but not a new numbered or mainline title in the series. Chances are Nintendo is saving the sequel for their next console, which means that the Switch would be one of the only Nintendo platforms (if we include the disasterous Virtual Boy) that won't have a mainline MK sequel throughout its lifespan.
Until then, we'll still have what I'm going to be calling Mario Kart Ultimate for the time being.
Mario Kart 8 Sales- Nintendo IR Information: Sales Data- https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/finance/software/index.html
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe- Booster Course Pass DLC trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uZDbDoDAq4&t=48s
Great Read! :)
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