Nintendo has revealed that Switch 2 launch title Mario Kart World was originally in development for the first Switch, and that the release of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe's Booster Course Pass DLC is the reason the game ended up on Switch 2.
The Japanese gaming giant's latest Ask the Developer article is all about the new Mario Kart game, which launches alongside the Switch 2 on June 5th. It turns out, though, that Nintendo began prototyping Mario Kart World all the way back in 2017.
According to producer Kosuke Yabuki, work on Mario Kart World began in March 2017, a month or so before the release of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Programming director Kenta Sato says the original plan was to develop for the Switch, but that this threw up a lot of technical issues.
Specifically, Sato says there were doubts about whether the original Switch was capable of accommodating Mario Kart World's 24-player limit. The team discussed various solutions, including "toning down the visuals, lowering the resolution, and...dropping the frame rate to 30fps".
Yabuki says that the team "kick[ed] the can down the road" while trying to work out what to compromise on for Mario Kart World,...
