Today’s patch makes two tiny changes to fix tournament points and match history from being reset. But it has also, again, sparked discussion among players wondering if a more significant update will ever follow. Released back in 2017, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is Nintendo Switch’s best-selling game. Four years on, it continues to sell extremely well and has a near-permanent spot in the UK boxed game chart top 10. Last year it looked like surging sales of Animal Crossing: New Horizons might finally dethrone Mario Kart 8 Deluxe from the Switch’s all-time top spot - but then Mario Kart 8 Deluxe went and sold a bucketload more. It currently sits on a staggering 35.4m copies all-time total and is the best-selling racing game of all time in the US. Modest game updates through 2018 saw Mario Kart 8 Deluxe add support for the Toy-Con Motorbike and Car from Nintendo’s various cardboard Labo kits. We also got a smattering of Zelda: Breath of the Wild cosmetics, and support for the Switch Online mobile app. But since that last small update in January 2019, all has fallen silent. Mario Kart 8 on Wii U received two expansion packs with new racers and tracks - these are included in the Switch version as the “Deluxe” part of the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe package. Fans had hoped Nintendo would continue to support the Switch version of the game in a similar way, but no new DLC has ever materialised. Perhaps Nintendo doesn’t want to undermine the “Deluxe” branding by offering optional paid DLC - which could make the game even more Deluxe-r? Perhaps Nintendo just doesn’t want my money. Or, perhaps, Nintendo is doing just fine selling Mario Kart 8 Deluxe as-is, four years on, to consider more Mario Kart yet.
