Topic: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

Well I mean, if they're doing DLC it's inevitable that they would have to re-remake tracks, at this point they're remaking more tracks than they're introducing.

There are still several tracks that haven't been remade I'd like to see though, namely Wario Colosseum and Rock Rock Mountain/Alpine Pass.

As someone who already played 50 hours or more of the Wii U version, as well as bought all of the dlc, do you guys think it's worth the money to buy the game again for the Switch? I love the portable aspect, but the fact that it doesn't let you transfer saves from the Wii U to the switch in some way is pretty disappointing. Unless of course, all of the characters are already unlocked except for the new ones.

@NinjaWaddleDee
It all comes down to the Battle Mode. Do you think you'll play it a lot with friends or online? Because that's pretty much the only totally new thing. Yea, we will get the ability to hold 2 items now, which is pretty cool, but I doubt that's the selling point for many people.

For me, it's a no-brainer. My wife LOVES Mario Kart 8 on the Wii U - it was pretty much the only thing she'd play with me. So I'm getting this launch day, not even a second thought. Battle Mode is going to be awesome.

Edit: Worth mentioning graphics, too. I mean, if you can watch some of the videos in high-res, the graphics definitely look slicker than the Wii U. Again, probably not a title-seller in its own right, but it will be cool to see everything upgraded.

@rallydefault Yeah I'll probably bite then. I'm just not looking forward to unlocking characters again.

@Bolt_Strike Oh yeah I definitely agree with that, but if they were to use all of the rest of the leftover tracks in Deluxe then there wouldn't be any left for Mario Kart 9 that'll eventually get released. Unless they make a Mario Kart Deluxe 2..

I don't think we will see a MK9 on Switch, and neither any sort of DLC for MK8, unless it sells a lot. It's a "Deluxe" version already

Switch is 4 years at minimum, and that's if it sells as poorly as Wii U (1.5 hardware updates not withstanding). If the Mario Kart team released 8 in 2014, DLC through April 2015, and Arms as well as (presumably) the Deluxe port around the same time in 2017, then they have every likelihood of releasing Mario Kart 9 and the DLC by 2021. In fact, it's definitely coming sooner than that due to Mario Kart's very high sales record, the Switch being the only Nintendo system for the foreseeable future, and the fact that DLC comes after the initial release and can retroactively fill in gaps in the game (see: Mario Kart only now getting battle mode arenas).

And for the record, I never really liked battle mode arenas. Mario Kart has never been great at turning while you are driving slowly, like when you get hit with an item because you're in battle mode and can't drift. I hope there's still the option to battle on the regular tracks, and that future titles have battle mode as an actual alternate racing mode with incentives for speed as well as combat further than the traditional race parameters.

@FGPackers DLC will most likely come in the form of battle arenas. This is the mode that pretty much everyone is buying Deluxe for over the original game.

@Emperor-Palpsy I disagree, the main thing is about the Wii U being a dead system and the Switch being a brand new system. Most people who pick up MK8 Deluxe will be people who don't own a Wii U (or at least the Switch is in big trouble if that isn't the case).

While I'm not committing to buying it, my main temptation to buy it again is just because it is currently my favourite game, and it would be great to have it portable. The Battle Arenas are just a bonus.

I've played nearly all my MK8 hours off-tv, so the idea that it's going to look even better than that, on a portable, makes me slightly giddy with glee.

The thing I'm wondering about is its long-term price point. MK8 held its price forever pretty much, but it'll be 3 years old by the time deluxe releases. Unless it flies off the shelves and sells millions then I imagine it will drop in price much quicker than the Wii U version. Given the size of the series in terms of its sales, I can't imagine Nintendo wanting to wait more than 2 more years (i.e. 2019) to put out MK9 unless MK8D proves to have real longevity.

Surely the plan is just to have MK8D going forward with continued DLC? I doubt very much that Nintendo are planning on making a MK9. Even if the sales are slow to begin with, as soon as they announce the first batch of DLC, people will soon enough pick up the game.

In fact, I suspect there might be a DLC pack coming for the holiday, or perhaps to fill out Q1 2018

Mario Kart sales history (according to VGChartz):

Wii - 35 million
DS - 23 million
3DS - 13 million
64 - 9 million
SNES - 8 million
Wii U - 7 million
Gamecube - 7 million
GBA - 5 million

Combined series sales (very roughly, ignoring digital purchases I think) - 104 million...

O-kaaay...

Actually I think they will do an MK 9 however it will not be until 2020 at the latest. Given Nintendo's history, it usually takes them 3 years (on average) per release of Mario Kart whether it is portable or handheld. I think DLC for MK8D will happen but at the same time there will be development for MK9. The other alternative is that MK8D is the Switch exclusive Mario Kart in which case we get many years worth of DLC for it.

If I recall, the developers never look at sequels as sequels but a platform for their game to be on the console

Well let's think a bit more about this. Given that 8 million copies have been sold on Wii U, how long is it going to take to get equivalent figures on the Switch version? It obviously depends on how Switch does on the whole, but they'll be doing well to hit the same figure on Switch in 2 years. That 2 years, plus the 2 years since we got any DLC for the Wii U version, equals 4 years. If they were going to do a lot more DLC for the MK8 engine I think we would have seen some by now. Maybe we'll hear about some more when MK8D releases, and I could see there being another batch at some point anyway, but surely there's more money to be had in just releasing a brand new MK9...?

I think to answer your statement @gcunit we need to look at the Waterfall development cycle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterfall_model

What essentially happens is we start with an idea. Then we design, build the game, test it and eventually release it. When it comes to the Maintenance part of the diagram however that is where it goes differently.
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You see, for many software products once you reach that stage it is the cleanup phase. Mission complete. Done. But when it comes to games, the ideal approach is to use this stage (but not always aka BotW) to assess the lifespan of the support from this point onward. For Mario Kart up until 8, this would be akin to many software products. Clean up and move onto the next one.
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But for Mario Kart 8, there is a split in the waterflow. On the left, you have the normal path. The game is done, move on. But on the right, you have the extended DLC. This option only diverts the flow. It eventually joins the left path. For many games, the left path is chosen. Time to move onto the next game. But when it comes to DLC, the business must decide if the risk of financial loss is worth the gain. The business will decide on the following examples to determine that.
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-Does the game sell well enough to risk it?
-Is there a consumer demand for extended content?
-How long will it take?
-How long will it keep the product alive?
-How long will the next game take to complete? *
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The asterisk marked one is a very interesting one. Because the moment a game is complete (or sooner in many cases. I know many developers who do this), they work on the next game. So there might be an overlap of projects. MK8D and MK9 could have been in development at the same time. But as long as the game is in the design phase at the very least, the business will assess this option too.
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So what does this mean for MK9? Well if MK8D doesn't sell well, it will come sooner. If the consumers want DLC, it will come later. If the DLC takes too long to make then they won't do it. If the DLC won't keep the product alive much longer (but in this case NK8's DLC has proved it does), then MK9 comes sooner. And if MK9 has already started its Implementation phase, then DLC won't happen.
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In short, the prediction of when MK9 will happen has far too many factors to conclude. There may not even be one for the Switch. All we can say is that it will be at least 2/3 years until we get some idea of what is going on.

@Grandpa_Pixel Thanks for sharing the model. I'd never heard of it and know nothing about game development processes, so it's good to be aware of it.

Do you think they would wait 2-3 years before any more DLC then, or do you mean two-thirds of a year? 2-3 years seems like a long time to wait before knowing more - it's their most popular current series pretty much.

@gcunit Personally I think if there is any DLC it would realistically be announced between E3 and September. My reason is looking at MK8's DLC cycle they did not announce DLC for it until 3 months after the game's release. That slaps us right at E3 (given April is the release date for MK8D) and onward. It would then say the first round of DLC would arrive in Autumn/Fall (an extra two months)

If you look at Breath of the Wild, you can see the large gap between the packs there as well. 3 months and 6 months. This is the sort of development span for a large amount of content. Mario Kart is no different. Think about all those 3D models, music tracks and testing that needs to go into a single pack of 16 tracks. If we assume they started development on the 2nd pack of DLC for MK8 the moment the first pack was done, then we can safely say it takes 5 months to make DLC.

April to July. Three solid months of the game being around (akin to the original). Then two months later would bring us to September. I would so if DLC was to happen at the earliest time it would be September assuming they are not already working on it.

EDIT: Also, you know how people were surprised Xenoblade 2 is coming so soon? Well there was no DLC. So it steered to the left path and was complete. So since summer/autumn 2015 the game has been complete. That means we have already seen that game have nearly 18 months of development already.

I'm watching somew new trailers and learning this is much more than just a port...

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe includes:

• Mario Kart 8 base game
• 16 additional DLC tracks
• 8 brand new battle arenas
• Balloon Battle battle mode
• Renegade Roundup battle mode
• Bobomb Blast battle mode
• Coin Runners battle mode
• Shine Thief battle mode
• 42 characters total incl. all DLC characters + Inkling Girl + Inkling Boy (and their own custom carts)
• can now break while drifting
• Grand Prix 200cc
• Time Trial mode
• Vs Mode
• can now carry 2 items
• new steering assist option for newcomers
• Boo item and Feather item return (can steal balloons jumping over others)

This game looks absolute jam packed with content, just brimming with fun to be had. I loved the original release, but this looks like the game Mario Kart 8 always wanted to be. Add to this the fact you can play it anywhere as a handheld game, and multiplayer on the spot (battle mode on demand!)... my goodness. I'm still enjoying Zelda but, this game has me hyped all over again.

My speculation on dlc for Mario Kart has a more scientific* approach. If you look at the Battle mode course select screen, you can see that if those 8 tracks scooched up, you can fit another 4 courses easy! Maybe 2 per dlc release.
*May not be scientific.

Be interesting to see how this reviews. The extra content, on top of a brilliant base game, is worthy of a 10 in terms of sheer quality, but it will likely get penalised for not being new.

I wonder if Switch games in general will benefit from their 'anywhere, anytime' feature when review scores are determined.