Reminder: You Don't Need The Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass To Play The DLC

That's neat. Segmenting the player base would have been rather messy.

Also, note how almost half of this wave comes from Tour... almost as if they want to remind people that yes, Mario Kart on your phone is a thing. Why not try that out, too?

So if you are playing online you can play them no matter what. That is honestly pretty cool and not something Nintendo had to do.

Who dare to not buy a $25 “full-game-content DLC”?

That's neat. Similar to how Smash handled playing with DLC online.

@Browny Mario Kart Tour has some cool tracks, Ninja Hideaway being one of the best.

@Browny They invested a lot into Tour and it didn't really pay off, so they are bringing these tracks over to MK8 so as to not let these tracks get wasted on a game nobody likes.

Neat I guess but I rather just pay for the DLC once to have them on my own

It's really a nominal fee for the amount of tracks being distributed, in the long run. Just pay the $25 or regional equivalent and enjoy new tracks for the next 2 years.

Huh. I think they handled this differently in MK8 on Wii U where you could only play the old courses if you didn't purchase the DLC courses there. Would've figured they would do the same here.

Not that it would matter to me as I'll have gotten the DLC of both versions anyway (did so back then on Wii U and I already have NSO+EP), but still good to know if I know someone without the DLC and they wanna try the courses out before buying or something.

Just over 50 cents a track. Hmm...folk are still going to complain aren't they lol.

Interesting, since I only play online anyway might not need to buy it.

I'm curious on the sections for the Tour courses since most of them, in this case Tokyo Blur & Paris Promenade, have different layouts to be raced out (Tokyo Blur 1, 2, 3).

Hopefully we get through ALL sections on each course and be segments like on Mount Wario and N64 Rainbow Road, for example.

@Fizza lol 😂

@GrailUK it's Nintendo, people will always complain and never be pleased.

On topic: I wish we could pick the tracks we wish to race on instead of picking from a random 4.
Mario Kart Wii had it and it was great.

Good to hear... I'm buying it immediately anyway.

I have the expansion pass so it’s a free update

Coconut mall, not coconut hall but yeah. Me and my friend both plan on buying it, but this is good to hear

I have the NSO expansion pack, so I won't need to pay the 33 Canadabux for this. Mario Kart 8 is my drinkin' game, looking forward to knocking back a few and seeing how well I can do against the Japanese Waluigi Army online on these tracks.

@TheBigK LOL

Coconut mall @ThomasBW84

@mariomaster96 I'll buy it too so I can play at my own pace.

I understand the reasoning though. With the way track selection online works, either the new tracks would never get used or people would be split up from those who bought them making matchmaking slower. Solution: give everybody limited access by default.

@Arkay
I think they did that to avoid the same course being picked over and over again.

What if I want to have a LAN party?

No thanks I'm paying for the DLC the Expansion pack is not worth the money

@sixrings Lan party is one of the Switches needs to have the DLC.

See, this is how Call of Duty should handle it. I haven't played COD in several years so maybe they have fixed it by now, but I remember it was so annoying because if you bought the DLC maps for online multiplayer, you would have a MUCH harder time getting matches. It was so obnoxious and discouraged me from buying DLC maps I wanted.

This is extremely important whether people realize it or not.

ShopTo have the DLC for just under £17, I bought it yesterday.

The path to Mario Kart 9 is long...

My individual NSO subscription expires this month, once that happens I'm moving to my sister's Family Plan that includes the Expansion Pack.

It's nice that they can give access to the new tracks to those who might not be able to afford it at launch.
I do wonder, did they give limited access to Animal Crossing: New Horizons players to those who don't have the Happy Home Paradise DLC in the same way they're doing it with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe?

@BTB20 lol... it got more than 250,000,000 downloads and over $260,000,000 in revenue... sure, is not their mos successful mobile game, but there are LOTS of people who liked it!

@blindsquarel absolutely this. It was nice to pick any track in online multiplayer, but I remember so many Mario Kart Wii matches on Rainbow Road because that is all anyone picked. MK8's system is better.

Like 12 or more will be tour
courses which I really don't like because of their non-Mario feel.
Having said that, paying €25 for 30 to 36 remade mainline courses is still way more than worth it. So I'm not complaining.

@BTB20 last I read was it was their second highest grossing mobile game and had 200+ million downloads. Just because you don't play something doesn't mean it was a failure or everyone hated it.

Pre-ordered. Most of tracks are new to me, and I love Mario Kart 7 tracks.

correct me if im wrong, if you dont buy the dlc you CAN play the tracks online and not offline, right? so a player like me, who only plays online, doesnt need to buy it then?? thats kinda nice if true

Thats a great idea! Check how ressy those tracks are 1st!!

@felip If you don't buy the DLC and opt to get it via the Expansion Pass instead, you still get to "own" or rather rent the DLC as long as your subscription is active. As long as you have the Expansion Pass, you should be able to play the new tracks online and offline. Nintendo will check if your subscription is active from time to time like they do with NES, SNES, and N64 though.

On Wii U it was already the same thing about Mario Kart DLC

Surprised by that decision.

Is this kinda like a game pass deal where if I stop paying for Switch online + Expansion I don't get access anymore?

That’s a nice addition, though most people will probably buy it anyway

@BTB20 in what possible way did it not pay off. Tour has made Nintendo over $200 million. And is one of the most downloaded phone games of all time. It certainly has paid off for Nintendo

Hmm.. lots of mario kart tour levels...almost like they had a choice to either make a new mario kart or make the mobile one... And then were like hell ..we can reuse these tracks and call it a day and get both

I really like Mario Kart Tour a lot. Amazing course selection AND roster bigger than any Mario Kart has ever had. Also, it has so many other elements, like scoring and strategy for upgrades, which I enjoy the most.

Now that I see that Nintendo don't really want to divide the user base, they should have included the Course Pass with Nintendo Online, not requiring the Expansion Pack. It's something that I thought when it was revealed. In reality, it should be free for every Mario Kart 8 owner and that would have been nice considering that the Switch upgrade was full price even for those that had already bought the DLC on Wii U.

@Marko76 With MK8 these tracks will make way more profit.

@sketchturner

They stopped doing map packs years ago. Everybody gets the maps as part of content updates.

They replaced it with season passes. Most COD players buy the passes. So they ended up making a lot more money and didn’t have to segment the fan base anymore.

Yeah I do; no NSO, because **** paying for online beyond ISP.

Now that I have said that, the price is decent given the number of courses, but I will hold off until all courses are available as I am in no rush to play, and I am kind of hoping for a definitve physical release, though I doubt it will happen.

@BTB20 nobody is disputing that. But your claim Mario Kart tour has not paid off is ***** when it's one of the most profitable phone games of all time.

In the long run I expect the N64 and Genesis to have more games I want to play so I don't mind paying for the EP to get the MK8D DLC at this point.

I have NSO + Expansion Pack so this isn't a big issue for me, but that's quite cool.

I think its cool, but not surprised really, Nintendo did this with SSBU I think.

Plus it would have been stupid not to, then players would be able to play those tracks online unless everyone had it, and the trailer said you didn't need to do this.

I have a bunch of friends getting this dlc so you know I'll be taking full advantage of that.

So just to be clear, if you cancel your subscription you'll lose these tracks? So like 10 years from now when we've all moved onto other consoles and the NSO is probably no longer a thing, you won't be able to fire up your dusty old Switch and copy of Mario Kart 8 and play these tracks? Really not feeling the incentive to have NSO+ over just spending the 20 odd quid to keep them on my console forever. And for the record, I do have NSO+ already.

@Baker1000 Welcome to the future of modern gaming. Yeah...it sucks and I'm happy Nintendo are dragging their heels with it.

@Browny its kinda cool because it makes tour tracks viable and kind of act like new tracks if you never played tour

@Marko76 It's one of the most downloaded but only made $1 per download on average. The actually most profitable mobile games are making over 1 billion dollars, not 260 million. The tracks are good and lost out on a lot of potential.

@1UP_MARIO What about if you cancel the online expansion pass, do you then lose the DLC? It won't be until late 2023 before all tracks are released, and then add another year of probably playing them, so that's 3 years of an active subscription. That's why, especially since the N64 and Sega games don't interest me much, I'm leaning towards buying the DLC outright.

@GrailUK
as much as i love the switch In some areas there are modern gaming aspects which i feel definitely have it worse on switch. (though a lot is my own hangups)

Examples being how they have cloud saves like the other systems but with no option to back up saves to external devices. The legacy content has a gamepass style subscription service but without the option to buy the games like gamepass has. It has a share button for screenshots and the like but no method to share the screens via the switch itself.

again i do love the system but feel like aspects such as online, social aspects and legacy content were handled better on wiiu.

This DLC however i feel is handled Extremely well, letting players buy/keep the content, and making sure it doesnt fracture the online aspect, and offering a large amount of content, its definitely the kind of thing i like to see nintendo doing and im really looking forward to these courses (also hoping to see maple treeway among these since i love that track)

After reading the comments, it seems you'll require an active online+ subscription to get and then keep the DLC. With tracks not all due until late 2023, and then add another year of playing, you need the online+ for 3 years. Nup, I'm buying them outright. It works out at 50% cheaper, and I keep them regardless of my online subscription status.

@Mgalens Yep, on Xbox you can buy every single game, Game Pass or not. Not just that but you keep games for future consoles unlike Sony and Nintendo. That's something I see people forgetting too often when discussing Game Pass. I think Nintendo is doing (mostly) the right thing with this battle pass but not with the retro catalogue of games and ports.

@Browny Honestly, I see it as a good way for great courses from a s**t game to show up in an actual Mario Kart game. From what I’ve seen, the courses are actually decent in Tour and I, for one, am glad that they’re being brought over to MK8.

@HalBailman I personally see it as something like “hey you, plan on staying subscribed to the Expansion Pass? Well, here’s more bonuses for you!”

I have a family plan with 8 people on it, so yeah it kinda makes it more worthwhile in my situation. I like that they give you the option though. It’s always good to have options!

@blindsquarel I get that, but still much prefer the freedom of picking the tracks myself.

A more appropriate heading would be-
Reminder: You Don't Need The Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass To Play The DLC but if you don't buy it, you'll need to spend even more on NSO plus 'expansion pass' and then you'll only get to rent the tracks.

@Browny To be fair, so many original amazing ideas and concepts from Tour probably didn't even get that much attention.

Nintendo, you are drunk, go to sleep.

The booster pack does give us a better idea of how they're gonna handle the NSO expansion deal too. Pile up the service with $25 dlc expansions as a bonus, so hardcore fans who already play all these games can warrent buying the expansion.

If they add enough dlc bonuses, perhaps 4 or more, I could soon see the expansion being worth someone's time. Especially if they dont plan on playing the dlc long term

In order to use this we'd still need to buy 2 copies of the game on Switch first since we have it on Wii U. I'm just going to wait and buy MK8D Complete on Switch 2 w/ all tracks included on the cart.😉

Questionn: if you have the expansion pass do you lose the courses when the service ends or if you stop subscribing to it? Also if you choose to pay the $25 per wave do you keep them forever?

@BTB20 Mario Kart with touch screen controls and vertical screen were bound to fail.
MK on phone were just not playable.

@SaturnHero yes you don't have access to the track if you unsubscribe or when the service will end. And the 25$ is for all the 48 tracks not per wave

I started playing tour again as a warmup to this.

The Microtransactions are, well, mobile game mobile transactions.

The game part of the game is pretty solid tho. Got some solid tracks in rotation

@Baker1000 We don't know what their online strategy is. My guess is that they want to do a Just Dance like service for games like Mario Kart but different. I would guess that the Booster Course Pass will likely be updated and still be there for Mario Kart 9 or X and serve as a way to play old tracks. It's not like Gamepass where you literally pay for AU$191.4 a year and get nothing out of it once you cancel besides perhaps a few old Xbox Live games. If you can find 7 other people to share the online membership with AU $109.95, it works out to be <$15 a year per person. If you're one person though AU $59.95 is a bit...steep.

@Banjo-
yeah.
i would definitely be willing to purchase the likes of Mario world, earthbound and banjo-kazooie on switch if they were available to buy and keep.

@nathatruc
So if you purchase the dlc for $25 do you have access to the tracks forever? I would assume so and that would be the plus to purchasing them over just "renting" them through the expansion pack.

@SaturnHero yes, if you buy the dlc you'll have access to tracks forever

Nintendo's strategy now is to add everything it had to current games, filled it to the brim and overwhelms the players. After finishing the rosters for Smash Bros they are continuing with MarioKart.

@HammerGalladeBro why not just renew it anyway

@Demyx6402 mostly because she offered me to enter her family plan and my current subscription (the one that's about to expire) is the basic one.

That and because it would divide the cost and make the fee slightly cheaper than going Individual + Expansion. I'll see if we could add more people to the mix so the cost goes down even further.

Wtf? I want to own 'em, so I can play 'em forever.

@HammerGalladeBro I see makes sense you’re cheating the Nintendo system