Via a message delivered to players within the game itself, it’s been confirmed that starting October 4, Mario Kart Tour will not receive any new content in the form of new tracks, karts, gliders, or drivers. That doesn’t mean support for the game is ending altogether- Mario Kart Tour will continue to get updated with tours in the future, but all of them will only include content that has been previously included in past tours.

Mario Kart Tour is one of several mobile titles published by Nintendo that have seen support being ended sooner than most would have expected, including the likes of Dr. Mario World and Dragalia Lost, among others. Similarly, Super Mario Run performed below Nintendo’s expectations.

As Nintendo moves more steadily into the mobile gaming space, many of their big franchises are now represented. One of their key titles, Mario Kart, got its own mobile spinoff last year, for instance, with Mario Kart Tour. Oddly though, the mobile version of the beloved multiplayer title launched without any multiplayer. It’s been a decent success despite that, and has had multiplayer betas, but now the full multiplayer is on the verge of launch.

As announced via the official Twitter, the game’s multiplayer will finally come at the end of the upcoming weekend. You’ll be able to race against friends and randoms in both Standard (where you stick to players in your own grade) and Gold (where you compete against the best of the best).

It was always a bit strange that the game never had any multiplayer at launch, but here we are. Whether that’ll give an influx to the title or not remains to be seen. Mario Kart Tour is available now on all compatible iOS and Android devices, with the full multiplayer going live on March 8th.

Race against players worldwide to raise your grade under rules that change daily in Standard Races and Gold Races. When racing friends or others nearby, Rooms let you pick speed, item slot number, and more. Play your way when #MarioKartTour multiplayer launches Mar. 8, 8 PM PT! pic.twitter.com/ckkekAsbHS

— Mario Kart Tour (@mariokarttourEN) March 3, 2020

Nintendo was slow to get into the mobile scene. They did so with tippy toes, so to speak, with the likes of Super Mario Run in the beginning. They’ve since released several titles in their biggest franchises for mobile devices, adapting them more to the usual mobile tactics. And as it turns out, it’s paid off for them, even if at a relatively slow pace, as combined revenue from their games have now passed $1 billion in lifetime player spending, according to Sensor Tower.

Interestingly, the number one game is Fire Emblem Heroes. While that franchise has grown significantly over the years, it’s still not at the level of a Mario or Zelda on mainline consoles. Heroes has struck a cord though, as a whooping 61% of Nintendo’s total mobile revenue comes from that game alone. Maybe more interesting is how the Mario games are all three battling at the bottom. Even Mario Kart Tour is behind Dragalia Lost and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, though it’s worth noting that Mario Kart Tour hasn’t been out for too long. This list does not include Pokemon titles, which are officially published by The Pokemon Company.

Nintendo hasn’t announced any other mobile efforts as of now, but the company seems to be getting pretty cozy with the market space. It’s inevitable that more IPs will make their way to your iOS and Android devices soon.

Nintendo’s biggest franchises have slowly trickled onto the mobile space. Pokemon, Fire Emblem, Animal Crossing, and more recently, Mario Kart. The mobile title Mario Kart Title was a weird one, though, with one of the many reasons being a lack of multiplayer, which has been so crucial to Mario Kart over the years (though that also didn’t seem to affect its success much). But multiplayer is coming and now everyone can get a free taste.

The game had a beta before, but it was only open to Gold Pass subscribers. The second beta will be available to everyone who has has the app downloaded. It’ll also have a new feature where you can race against local players using local data.

Mario Kart Tour is available now for all compatible iOS and Android devices. The multiplayer beta is live now across all devices. Save data from the beta will not carry over to the full multiplayer when it launches. There’s no official date for when that will be as of now.

Nintendo’s foray into mobile has been a slow, but steady, process. They eased into the space with multiple big name franchises and one of their biggest raced in near the end of last year with Mario Kart Tour. The game surpassed 123 million downloads quickly within its first month and has been steady ever since. Oddly, it didn’t launch with mulitplayer and got a multiplayer beta not long ago for those subscribing to the game’s Gold Pass. The second one is coming, but it’s not as exclusive.

As announced within the game, a second multiplayer beta is coming soon. Unfortunately, no dates were given but it was said this will be a more open affair. You won’t need to be subscribed to the Gold Pass. Unlike the last beta, you can also have the option to race others in your immediate vicinity.

Mario Kart Tour is available now to all compatible iOS and Android devices. Keep your eyes peeled for when the second multiplayer beta will begin.

Subscriptions

Just to be clear, this doesn’t reference games like Final Fantasy 14 which justify the cost of their subscriptions year in and year out. No, this is referring to games that are very clearly milking their players, tying RNG rewards and other features to monthly subscriptions to tempt them to spend more money. Mario Kart Tour, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp and of course, Fallout 76’s Fallout 1^st are all egregious offenders (especially Fallout 1^st since it was broken at launch).

Today is New Year’s Eve but despite the celebrations, Nintendo has a new tour raring to go for Mario Kart Tour. The update goes live today, titled New Year’s Tour, will modify the Tokyo track and also offer new alternate drivers, new karts and gliders, and much more. Check out the trailer below.

The event will be live from today until January 14th 2020 so if you’re keen on getting a red coloured Yoshi or seeing Mario and friends in new costumes, it might be worth logging in. You’d think the momentum for Mario Kart Tour would be slowing down at this point. However, the free to play kart racer has been performing exceptionally well.

A report from Sensor Tower in October indicated 123.9 million downloads with $37.4 million in revenue for the first month. Those figures have more than likely gone up since then and given the Holidays, Nintendo might see another big bump in revenue for December. We’ll see how things pan out for the title in the new year.

Bandai Namco have shared a strong working relationship with Nintendo, having worked on several of the latter’s games, including the likes of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and Pokken Tournament. The company recently updated its products page (via Niko Partners senior analyst Daniel Ahmad on Twitter), and revealed that it had a significant contribution in the development of a few other key Nintendo titles as well.

The page states that Bandai Namco were behind “approximately half of visual assets for courses, characters, and machine parts” for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (which makes sense, since the page mentions that they were in involved in the same capacity with the Wii U version of Mario Kart 8). For ARMS, they did similar work, and were responsible for “approximately half of visual assets for stages, fighters, and arms.” Good to know where those arms in ARMS come from.

Bandai Namco were even involved in the development of the recently released Mario Kart Tour, for which they “partially implemented in-games and 3D visual assets for courses, characters, and machines”, while also having made “approximately half of bonus challenges.”

Given how much Nintendo has collaborated with Bandai Namco in recent years, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they occasionally go to them for support as well.

Interestingly enough, before development on Metroid Prime 4 was rebooted and handed off to Retro Studios, reports suggested that it was Bandai Namco who was working on the game. Future reports suggested that that work had been scattered and unsatisfactory, which led to the project getting rebooted. That said, none of that has ever been confirmed.

One of the biggest Nintendo franchises drove onto mobile devices earlier in the year. It was already quite the the success, as it was Nintendo’s fastest mobile launch ever with over 90 million downloads. And it doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon.

A lot of mobile games tend to have a front loaded launch and then taper off afterward. That’s actually happened to a lot of Nintendo’s previous mobile efforts such as Super Mario Run. But with Mario Kart Tour, it seems that keeps on driving. According to data from Sensor Tower the game has already seen 123.9 million downloads and $37.4 million in revenue in its first month alone. It blasted past the other mobile titles which you can see from the chart below. Seems this one has the potential to keep in the track for a long time.

Mario Kart Tour is available now for all compatible iOS and Android devices.

One of Nintendo’s biggest game franchises is finally on mobile devices with the release of Mario Kart Tour. The game has been a huge success for the company, being the fastest mobile launch ever for them with 90 million downloads. Like all ongoing mobile games, it’ll also get continued support, and right now it’s in the midst of a Tokyo event.

The event runs this month, and comes with a lot of new content. In it we’ll get a whooping 14 new characters, with the likes of Wario and the Koopa Kids joining the roster. There’s also lot of new items, courses (including courses based on classic Mario Kart tracks), and costumes to chose from. You can see the full list below.

Mario Kart Tour is available now for all compatible iOS and Android devices. The Tokyo event will run until October 23rd, with the current spotlight item being Kimono Peach, which will be in the spotlight until October 15th.

New Characters

• Baby Rosalina
• Bowser Jr
• Iggy
• Lakitu
• Larry
• Lemmy
• Ludwig
• Mario (Hakama)
• Morton
• Peach (Kimono)
• Rosalina
• Roy
• Wario
• Wendy

New Courses

• Kalimari Desert (N64)
• Neo Bowser City (3DS)
• Mario Circuit (3DS)
• Rainbow Road (SNES)
• Tokyo Blur

New Karts

• Biddybuggy
• Black Circuit
• Blue Biddubuggy
• Cheep Charger
• Circuit Special
• Cloud 9
• DK Jumbo
• DK Jumbo (Chrome)
• Kabuki Dasher
• Koopa Clown
• Landship
• Quickshaw
• Royale

New Gliders

• BBIA Parafoil
• Cloud Glider
• Droplet Glider
• Full Flight
• Lightning Oilpaper
• Oilpaper Umbrella
• Paper Glider
• Purple Oilpaper Umbrella
• Wario Wing