Mario Kart World Was Originally a Switch 1 Game, Started Development in 2017 - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 21 May 2025 / 3,532 Views
Nintendo has posted a new Ask the Developer interview with Mario Kart World developers that reveals new details on the upcoming kart racer.
The game started development in 2017 and was originally a Nintendo Switch 1 game.
"We were thinking about what to do for the next Mario Kart game even during the development of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and we began prototyping in March 2017," said Mario Kart World producer Kosuke Yabuki. "It was at the end of that year when we officially started work on it as a project.
"I felt that in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, we were able to perfect the formula that we'd been following in the series up to that point, where players race on individual courses. That’s why, this time, we wanted the gameplay to involve players driving around a large world, and we began creating a world map like this."
Mario Kart World programming director Kenta Sato stated, "At the time, we were developing Mario Kart World for Nintendo Switch, and we were analyzing from a calm and collected programming perspective whether it would be possible to accommodate 24 players.
"In game development, you first finish making all the different elements and then optimize them to run on the system. But when trying to accommodate 24 players, we had to make all kinds of processing optimizations right from the start as we were making it."
Sato added, "When we were developing for the Nintendo Switch system, it was difficult for us to incorporate everything we wanted, so we were always conscious of what we were giving up in return. We discussed things like toning down the visuals, lowering the resolution, and we even considered dropping the frame rate to 30 fps in some cases. It was a tough situation."
Mario Kart World will launch alongside the Nintendo Switch 2 on June 5.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can follow the author on Bluesky.
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I guess it should have been released at that point when Nintendo announced the 48 tracks booster pack DLC for MK8D, which was back in February 2022. But MK8D was selling that good that Nintendo probably decided to delay Mario Kart World and make it a Switch 2 launch title.
Makes sense.
I mean, why mess with success? Mario Kart is Nintendo's equivalent of franchises like GTA Online, Minecraft, and Roblox.
GTA Online, Minecraft, and Roblox won’t last forever. Eventually, people will get tired and move on. Spicing things up is how you maintain success in the long-term.
also: i wonder how late into development MKWorld was before Nintendo decided to move it on over to NSW2.
I mean, Minecraft has lasted for 14 years, Roblox and GTA Online are both 18 years old, Fortnite is coming up on its first decade, and there is no end in sight for any of them. They're all going stronger than ever. I'm guessing that Mario Kart 8 is Nintendo's single most profitable game. Roblox Corporation is worth almost twice what EA is. And when you consider how many media franchises have endured for decades, that's about as close to "forever" as it gets.
I was playing Minecraft Alpha in 2009... 16 years ago.
Minecraft seems to get a resurgence of sales every single console release as people rebuy the game for their new platforms.
And it's cheap enough where it's not really a "second guess" on buying the game, it can be an impulsive buy.
Minecraft has about 170~ million monthly active users... To put that into perspective, that's more than there are Switch consoles sold.
...And that is largely thanks to older consoles, handhelds and PC.
2023 was a pretty strong year and I don't know if Nintendo would've wanted to add Mario Kart to it in terms of timing, so any point between Spring-Holiday 2022 probably would've been the time if it didn't get moved to Switch 2.
Yeah makes sense. But definitely the right call to release 1 Mario Kart title per console. Dont want the sales of one to eat into another.
That's a crazy long development time for a game like this.
A game like what? You definetily dont know the challenge to make everything work togheter on a chaotic game like Mario kart, now make it open world, add online gameplay with videochat and double the number of racers. All of that without taking consideration that the game is not even out, so probably theres a lot of stuff hidden, which makes impossible to do a proper judgment
Mario Kart: Horizon
Just needed to look to the game to understand this is a Switch game with better resolution and FPS. But Nintendo is not releasing it on base Switch to drive more hardware sales
I don't think the scale would work on Switch but I definitely think asset quality reflects an initial cross gen development
I know this is a hot take but that's kinda one of my problems with the Switch 2, nothing shown so far feels like it justifies being on a whole new console, this game and DK could have worked on Switch 1, with sacrifices for sure, but they could have worked. Instead of wanting a whole new 4K console I'm kinda just wishing the Switch OLED had had just a few more horsepowers.
I mean by that logic who needs ps5 or xbsx? after all they can just downgrade there games here and there.
Well frankly those sytems had the same issue to a large extent , but the Switch being behind in terms of power gives it a bit less of an excuse since its making a legitimately significant leap in power which isn't clearly utilized other than a resolution and framerate boost. But to clarify the issue isn't that I want switch 2 games to look like PS4 games, the issue is that the games look fine but the hardware is overkill for it, and since it isn't very appealing by itself (to me) due to design, price, etc. that just gives it a lack of purpose. Clearly my opinions of Switch 2 are not popular in general, but I gotta be honest and say that I don't feel excited about it despite being a longtime Nintendo fan, it's just many smaller issues adding up. But maybe I'm just not the target audience for this any longer, I'm sure the next 3D Zelda or Smash Bros. can still win me over but until then I'm all good on my Switch 1 and other systems.
You're not alone. I feel like it's got a similar problem the XBSS has, where it looks so similar to the Xbone S that the public can't perceive that it's a much, much better system technically. I always see people calling XBSS the Xbox one on Facebook marketplace and pricing it too cheap. It's so much better than the Xbone but how can the public see that if it looks so similar. Switch 2 visually speaking, looks pretty basic and in it's appearance it doesn't convey the increase in value your getting.
True, but to me it's not just a problem of conveying the value, but also the value itself as 80 % of its appeal is being "a more powerful switch" which is something a Pro could have handled 2-3 years ago. Just beefing up the OLED slightly for 50$ more would have done wonders, not 4K and 120fps obviously but to me that's overkill for these types of games. And that's not just Nintendo but a general console thing that generations are becoming more about boosted performance which to me should only be the main appeal of a mid-gen upgrade. But I've explained my take plenty and don't want to put any more of a damper on people's hype, I do hope the games turn out great for those who are getting a Switch 2.
I think you'll be surprised how much better a game like Pokemon will be with the Switch 2 hardware. Look at Palworld. Let's face it, that's just a ripoff of pokemon and look how successful it was. People loved it not just because it was pokemon like, but because it was doing things that simply couldn't work on Switch 1. Switch 1 hardware is so extremely limiting. The time is right for new hardware, just not 450$ hardware. By that I mean, don't change the internal specs as those are fine, just make a cheaper TV only version as an option. Why make people pay for a screen that not everyone will use?
But that's the thing, the focus on better performance is exactly what stops the games themselves from doing that much new stuff with the added power, if you gotta go from 900p at 30fps to 4K 60-120fps that's basicly all the added power spent right there. I'm sure that won't be true for all games, but so far it seems performance is given too high priority imo. And just for the record yea a non-handheld option would be nice, though I would stick with hybrid if I got one.
But anyways that's enough arguing for me. TLDR the Switch 2 is not for me atm, but I still hope for the best for its games for other people's sake.
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