Nintendo is winding down service for its 2019 mobile game Mario Kart Tour later this year.

Announced via a FAQ, racing will come to an end on September 29. "We sincerely thank the many players who have loved and supported the game since service began so long ago," the company says.

Nintendo hasn't publicly disclosed the total number of active players or downloads of Mario Kart Tour. Appmagic data sourced by mobilegamer.biz in late 2022 suggested the game earned over $220 million during its first three years, racking up over 204 million downloads along the way.

Now, as noted in a separate FAQ, an offline version of Mario Kart Tour is "not scheduled for release." As of yesterday, Nintendo has ceased the sale of rubies, the premium in-game currency, and stopped automatic subscription renewals and new subscriptions to the game's Gold Pass.

Nintendo has had a thorny history with the monetization for the mobile game. Originally, Mario Kart Tour featured a gacha-like mechanic where players could get random drivers, karts, and other items by spending in-game currency. The company announced its removal in 2022, replacing it with a shop featuring a rotating inventory of specific digital goodies.

Related:Own goal specialist Xbox rifles another into the roof of the net - Patch Notes #60

Then, in 2023, a young player under the age of 18 filed a potential class action lawsuit against Nintendo about the gacha mechanic, alleging the game had "immoral" microtransactions that have preyed on minor players. Within the suit, it was argued that Nintendo "capitalized on and encouraged addictive behaviors akin to gambling."

Throughout 2023, Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto said that phones "will not be the primary path of future Mario Games." In September of that year, ahead of an Anniversary Tour, the company said it wasn't planning on releasing new content for Mario Kart Tour afterward.

Back then, Miyamoto also noted that bringing the franchise to phones was "challenging" because you have to account for so many "common, generic devices," which isn't the case when developing for consoles.

About the Author

Diego Argüello

Contributing Editor, News, GameDeveloper.com

Diego Nicolás Argüello is a freelance journalist and critic from Argentina. Video games helped him to learn English, so now he covers them for places like The New York Times, NPR, Rolling Stone, and more. He also runs Into the Spine, a site dedicated to fostering and supporting new writers, and co-hosted Turnabout Breakdown, a podcast about the Ace Attorney series. He’s most likely playing a rhythm game as you read this.