Mario Kart Tour Permanently Shuts Down on September 29 as Nintendo ends support after seven years. Learn why the game is closing and what happens to players.
Mario Kart Tour
Nintendo has announced that Mario Kart Tour will shut down on September 29. This means the mobile racing game will come to an end after seven years. The company said the games’ online servers will be turned off for good. Unlike some of their mobile titles, there are no plans to release an offline version. Once the shutdown happens, players will not be able to access the game. This is the chapter for one of Nintendo’s most successful smartphone releases.
Nintendo thanked fans for supporting Mario Kart Tour since it launched in September 2019. They also shared details about the games’ remaining premium features. The sales of Rubies, the in-game currency, have already stopped. However, players can still use any Rubies they already have before the servers close. Automatic renewals for the Gold Pass subscription have been disabled. People who already subscribe will still get benefits until the shutdown. Starting on August 4, all players will get Gold Pass rewards for free until the game goes offline.
Mario Kart Tour had a lot of ups and downs during its time. When it first came out, people criticized it for its gacha-style mechanics. This meant players had to spend money to try and unlock racers, karts, and other content. Some features, like the 200cc racing mode, were only available if you paid for a subscription. After years of people complaining, Nintendo changed the gacha system to an item shop in October 2022. This made the game more fair to players while keeping the core Mario Kart gameplay.
Over time Nintendo added tracks, characters, and seasonal events to keep the game fresh. They had limited-time content and rotating racers that gave players reasons to come back. Some courses from Mario Kart Tour even appeared in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s Booster Course Pass. However, some tracks were only available on the game. Since Nintendo said they will not make a version, these tracks might disappear forever when the servers shut down.
Mario Kart Tour Permanently Shuts Down after nearly seven years of service. Find out what Nintendo announced, the end of Gold Pass, and why no offline version is planned.
This decision makes people wonder about Nintendo’s plan for mobile gaming. A few weeks ago they released Pictonico!, their third smartphone game in a year. This shows they are still interested in games. At the time they are closing one of their biggest mobile successes instead of keeping it alive with an offline version. This mixed approach has fans questioning how important mobile gaming is to Nintendo.
One reason for the shutdown might be that the game’s performance is not as good as it used to be. Although Mario Kart Tour made an estimated $200 million to $300 million during its time, it never made as much as Nintendo’s biggest mobile success, Fire Emblem Heroes. Fire Emblem Heroes has made over $1 billion. Still makes millions of dollars each month. Keeping a live-service game running requires development and server support. Nintendo might have decided that these costs are not worth it anymore.
This move also shows that Nintendo is being more careful about the types of games they want to support. Their recent releases have been experiences and promotional apps rather than big free-to-play live-service games that need constant updates. While Nintendo has not given up on smartphones entirely, their priorities seem to be changing toward projects that need maintenance over time.
With Mario Kart Tour joining games like Miitomo, Dragalia Lost, Dr. Mario World, and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp on Nintendo’s list of retired mobile games, their smartphone catalog is getting smaller. Fire Emblem Heroes, Fire Emblem Shadows, Pikmin Bloom, and Super Mario Run are still available. However, Mario Kart Tour’s journey will officially end on September 29. For fans the biggest disappointment is that the game’s exclusive content will disappear forever. This is the end of a chapter in Nintendo’s mobile gaming history.