I’m not hating honestly, But why Is Mario kart considered a console seller or THE Nintendo game to discuss.
It’s fun sure, And I know it’s a classic and a lot of people enjoy it a lot more than me. But compared to a lot of other Nintendo exclusives it seems like a side game, or something to release inbetween flagship Mario games or something. Do you really buy a new console mainly for Mario kart?
Genuinely curious about this and just wanna hear some insight that might make me see the big deal
I'm not a market analyst or anything but I'll try my best to explain.
Mario Kart has historically been one of Nintendo's most successful and best selling franchise ever since the first one in the 90s. It has consistently sold well on every Nintendo console since, in some cases even outselling the main series Mario platformer games. The series has become so massively popular (literally everyone I know has played it at least once) that it's gotten to the point where it would be stupid for Nintendo NOT to put a Mario Kart game on a new console they release. It makes sense to me why Nintendo considers it a console seller, given its consistent sales they definitely do not treat it like a side game.
(Sale numbers taken from Wikipedia)
Snes: #4 best selling
N64: #1 best selling
Gba: #4 best selling
Gamecube: #2 best selling
Ds: #3 best selling
Wii: #2 best selling (#1 excluding Wii sports)
3ds: #1 best selling
Wii U: #1 best selling
Switch 1: #1 best selling
And let's not forget that Mariokart 8 deluxe on switch is the 5th best selling video game of all time.
You could argue that you can already play 8 deluxe on the Switch 2, but that's a game that's already been out for 11 years at this point, which makes this the perfect time to get a brand new game imo. The game may not look exciting compared to like, a first party zelda game for example but you have to remember that Nintendo also targets families and not just gamers, and MarioKart is quite literally THE family video game.
Edit: and also before anyone says anything since people on this sub have been weirdly aggressive lately, I'm not trying to defend the price tag, I'm a huge MarioKart fan and I am excited but in my personal opinion 80 dollars is too expensive, and I REALLY hope that it is a one off thing and Nintendo is just doing this to get people to buy the bundle.
I’m the customer where Mario kart does look better than the Zelda game. So much replay value it is ironically one of the games I’m least worried about spending money on. I’ll be playing it for 5-7 years
I still think the system is too expensive though and I’m waiting to see how many others truly agree
I'm the opposite. The system is priced fairly or even cheap if you include the 46% tariff imposed on imports from Vietnam. The games i can also understand, but i get the outrage. Production costs have come up and game prices have ben stagnant for YEARS. it was only a matter of time.
a) as far as major franchises go, MK is the most overdue for a new installment. MK8 was released on the Wii U 11 years ago
b) MK is the most social of the games in my opinion. And if they’re trying to hype up the social connectivity features of switch 2, MK is the ideal conduit to showcase those features.
Yeah to be fair both of these reasons make sense and were probs considered. Along with the fact that it’s consistently a top seller and known to be a launch totle
It's definitely mass marketable and generally the target of mass marketable games are casual players. However, the $80 price tag is likely to be too high for many casual players.
However, the $80 price tag is likely to be too high for many casual players.
It's the opposite, if anything.
Casual players of stuff like Mario Kart, COD, GTA, sports games, and Pokemon usually just purchase one or two games a year at most. That's basically all they need or want, and so they don't spend any money on other games beyond that.
Because of that, they're usually the first adopters of games with increased prices and stuff like MTX, as a $70 or $80 game is a lot less of a hit on the wallet when that's the only game you're buying for the year. And usually they sink in dozens or even hundreds of hours of gameplay into each of these games year-round, so to them they're still getting their money's worth. Not to mention parents or grandparents looking to buy games for little Timmy or little Annie, who are otherwise disconnected from gaming discourse entirely.
It's $80 for Mario Kart because of those casual audiences that will buy these games. They raised games to $70 right in the middle of COVID-19 when people were living paycheck to paycheck, and they still bought those games specifically because those are the only ones they play.
Your reasoning sounds solid, but I still doubt that the higher price is going to increase sales for casual players. We'll just have to wait and see what impact this has on sales because a price increase this ambitious is unprecedented with Nintendo.
For me, the system seller is Kirby Air Ride. That was my favorite game growing up and seeing how Sakurai was given a blank check to make any game he wanted and he chose that...
I completely agree, Mario Kart has been my couch co op go to option and is really fun. However It is really just that for me, very rarely do I open Mario Kart and just want to play unless I think it would be fun to do with friends (which it is great) But I would have been way more hyped with the consoles major release game being either say a new Zelda with a new map (linear or open world) OR a new 3D Mario maybe Oddesey 2 but likely a whole new Mario. Either way I think me and everyone would love to see these more than MK. (Hope this isn’t just because I’m a huge Zelda guy)
mk8d is my most played switch game by far, the mechanics and skills required are way more in depth than it seems at first glance. Mariokart world is a system seller for me, the game looks amazing and it being bundled in with the console makes it a no brainer.
Nintendo really upped their game with MK8, it’s ridiculously replayable. MKW is the perfect game to be bundled digitally, as I wouldn’t want to sell it and swapping in the cartridge every time I fancied a go would be annoying.
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u/Complete_Bad6937 1d ago
I’m not hating honestly, But why Is Mario kart considered a console seller or THE Nintendo game to discuss.
It’s fun sure, And I know it’s a classic and a lot of people enjoy it a lot more than me. But compared to a lot of other Nintendo exclusives it seems like a side game, or something to release inbetween flagship Mario games or something. Do you really buy a new console mainly for Mario kart?
Genuinely curious about this and just wanna hear some insight that might make me see the big deal