Last week, Nintendo gave us the first Direct of the year. It was a really good one (particularly if you’re an RPG fan) but also if, like me, you’re a huge Mario Kart fan. Nintendo announced the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass DLC. At first, I was simply excited to be getting more Mario Kart – 48 remastered tracks released over the next 2 years. Purchasing the Pass will set you back R450… Unless you have a Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscription which will grant access to all the content for FREE. And that’s when I realised this was actually a rather clever strategic move by Nintendo.
Expansion Pack Boost
Consider that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe currently features 48 tracks. So, that means the Pass will double the amount of content. Seen like that, R450 is arguably a pretty good deal – just over R9 per track. Even for people that were hoping for a full new game with some sort of update on the Mario Kart formula, considering that you would’ve had to pay around R1,129 for a new title and there is a huge new roster to look forward to for less than half of that price – it’s not a bad compromise. However, the masterstroke is including it free with the Expansion Pack. When the Expansion Pack was originally announced it was hit with a lot of criticism. Subscriber numbers are probably a lot lower than Nintendo believe they should be and the service clearly needed a boost, I believe including the Mario Kart DLC will be that boost. Why?
Well, while Mario Kart is popular locally – it’s easy to forget just what a giant hit it is for Nintendo. As per recent sales figures, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is already owned by more than 40% of current Switch owners. It’s literally the biggest game on the Switch. Some players have been itching for more Mario Kart for several years. Of those, there’s probably a significant number that are currently not Switch Online Expansion Pass subscribers. Now, they could simply purchase the DLC for the ‘relatively’ cheap price of R450. However, I suspect signing up to the Expansion Pass now suddenly seems a lot more attractive. Yes, it is a yearly rate of R629. But, if you were planning on getting the DLC anyway – considering you’d basically be getting the NES, SNES and Genesis libraries plus Happy Home Paradise for only an extra R179 – the deal is immediately a lot more enticing.
Plus, consider that if you sign up for the Family membership (R1129.00 – the price of one new game) you can divide that by 8 friends and family. This means you’ll theoretically only have to pay around R140 per year for EVERYTHING (basically a new Mario Kart game and all the Online perks and libraries). I suspect that will have most people very interested. And for the 60% of Switch owners that don’t own Mario Kart yet, well, Nintendo also currently has a 33% off sale on the base Mario Kart 8 Deluxe game (R752.70). I suspect they will now be extra tempted not only to buy the base game for the cheaper sale price but possibly also sign up for the Expansion Pass subscription too – especially as each subsequent Wave is released and hype increases.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe will continue to sell and the Expansion Pass that got quite a bit of flack when it first launched – now has a Mario Kart-shaped figurehead to make it way more appealing. It’s a win-win for Nintendo and (hopefully) for us fans too. Remember the first wave launches next month (18 March 2022) and I can’t wait for some new races!
Anyone keen to join me?
As always remember you can check out more Nintendo news, reviews and features at www.nintendogamer.co.za and if you would like a video recap of the Nintendo news you missed last week check out the latest episode of our quickfire video series 1-Up 1-Down here.