In the last Nintendo Direct, the Big N made it very clear to us that Nintendo Switch will be the first console of the company that will not have its own Mario Kart. Possibly, we will not see a new title until 2024, when 10 years will have passed since the original launch of Mario barth 8 for Wii U. However, in the last appointment, Nintendo did show news for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, making it practically a video game as a service. Are these the company's future plans?
Mario Kart as a service. It is never late if happiness is good
As much as Nintendo has tried to convince us otherwise, the Switch is missing Mario Kart. The authentic nintendero already enjoyed Mario barth 8 at the time —that is, in 2014—. This 2022, both Disney and Square Enix have plans to launch their own "Mario Kart". And this must have moved Nintendo's plans a bit, which has now realized, eight years after the release of MK8, who are losing market no matter how well the Wii U rehash is sold on the Switch. And that's when he appears on the track Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass. How did they take so long to make such a logical move?
Let's go by parts. It's understandable that we won't see Mario Kart 9 on Switch. How attractive would it be? We would have the same graphics, and it would be like going through the checkout again to buy a similar product. It is much more sensible to add new circuits —or old tracks remastered— to the video game itself. And thus enrich it, even if that means buy a DLC or have to pay for two Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack memberships to get to have the 48 circuits that will come to the game in 6 waves different
El Booster Course Pass de Mario Kart 8 Deluxe It tells us a lot between the lines, but there are two that are key. The first of all is that the Switch will continue to be on the front line until, at least, end of 2023. And the second is that Nintendo is paving the way to position its video games as a service. And while this business model doesn't always benefit players, there are Big N franchises that could. gain attractiveness with this strategy.
What Nintendo games would benefit from being sold as a service?
If we think about it carefully, Nintendo should have chosen this business model for Mario Kart years ago. Why let a title die years after it was released when it could be kept alive for months by releasing several annual DLC? If the norm is that only one game from this franchise comes out per console, the logical thing to do is to continue making money with it while keeping the most loyal players happy. A win-win manual.
But not only that. Animal Crossing, for example, also uses the same model, i.e. just one mainline game per console. And, although it already had its free DLC on Nintendo 3DS, New Horizons on the Switch has also followed the same path as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Are we or are we not facing a paradigm shift?
Before we say goodbye, there is another franchise that could also benefit from this model: Pokémon. Game Freak's strategy is the exact opposite of Animal Crossing or Mario Kart. However, the pressure to meet the established agenda has forced the studio to release games in recent years where it can be perfectly appreciated that lack development.
It would make a lot of sense to launch a game of the main line of Pokémon and keep updating it with new regions, stories and creatures progressively. Whether or not they choose this path will depend on whether Game Freak and Nintendo want to demonstrate the potential they have, or settle for games that deliver but never make it to the top. In the case of Sword and shield, they already had their own DLCs, but, on that occasion, it was excessively noted that it was not a video game as a service, but rather a post game which was cut from the original game due to not having enough time to include it in the base cartridge. And you? Do you think that this model that Nintendo is getting into little by little is positive or negative for the players?