Mario Kart fans have been wondering about mobile title Mario Kart Tour, which has been kept pretty quiet since its announcement last year. During this morning’s third quarter earnings release, Nintendo announced that there would be a Mario Kart Tour delay, dashing hopes it would be playable anytime soon.
The official Mario Kart Facebook account later wrote that Mario Kart Tour was being delayed to this summer so that it would spend more time in development.
“Our developers need more time to tinker under the hood to deliver the best possible Mario Kart experience for mobile,” the post said. “Apologies to everyone revving up their engines for the planned pre-April launch, Mario Kart Tour is now gearing up for the starting grid in summer 2019!”
The game was first announced back in January of last year during the 2017 third quarter earnings. Not many details were given about how Mario Kart would transition to mobile or if micro-transactions would be involved, but it was given an initial release date of March 2019.
Reggie Fils-Aime reaffirmed Nintendo’s commitment to the game later in the year during E3, saying that more information would be forthcoming as the game grows closer to release.
Mario Kart Tour would be Nintendo’s sixth mobile title since entering the market in 2016. Other titles include Miitomo, Fire Emblem Heroes, Super Mario Run, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp and new RPG IP Dragalia Lost.
The Mario Kart series has been known to be a big seller across all Nintendo platforms. Their third quarter earnings showed that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has become the best selling game on the Switch, sitting comfortably at 15.02 million sold units to date since its release in 2017.
Mario Kart 7 is also the best selling Nintendo 3DS title to date, selling 18.11 million units since its release back in 2011. It still moves copies today, selling 590,000 units this past quarter.
