Why Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC Makes Sense. (And Why Nintendo Is Pulling A Street Fighter V)
Hey all, I apologize for the long wait for this article (Trust me, I've seen the impatient folks that have been waiting for this, I'm sorry!)
Two reasons:
1. I was waiting for some more information from contacts to come in. I will never rush that kind of thing for the sake of getting an article out sooner.
2. Knowing there was going to be a Capcom announcement soon, I wanted to wait until Street Fighter 6 was actually announced to be able to fully use this analogy. I promise it'll make sense!
Without further ado,
As we all know, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is getting DLC, five years after release.
But why? Why so long after it's initial release? Let's get into some reasons as to why:
It's Cost Effective:
Let's go by a little thing we like to call Occam's Razor: The simplest explanation is usually the best one, and in this case, it's as simple as that. Mario Kart 8, believe it or not, is nearing 8 years old. This is an old Wii U game that Nintendo made when they were still having issues with HD development. Those days have long since ended and Nintendo's gotten it down to a science, so just giving this to an outside developer who knows what they're doing (Namco Bandai) is an easy, cost effective move for them. Additionally:
This Is Being Made On A (Relatively) Low Budget:
If this wasn't obvious by the huge conversation concerning the visuals, Nintendo isn't spending a ton of money on this. The sheer difference in graphical fidelity is astounding.
Here's A Track From 8:
Here's A Track From The Booster Pack:
The lighting is much, much worse. The environments are far less detailed and the attention to detail that Yabuki's team put into every track is sorely missing here. As I said in my last article, BN is uprezzing these tracks and calling it a day. This is an outsourced, low budget project for them. While the amount of content here is crazy, the content itself isn't very ambitious.
It's Mario Kart's 30th Anniversary:
This year marks the 30th anniversary of Nintendo's most popular series. Celebrating the occasion with 48 additional tracks representing three decades of the series is the perfect way to do it. This just makes complete and total sense.
"Where's the characters? Karts? Everything Else?"
This is a pretty cut and dry question, with an equal answer. Simple. You're not getting any of that. If the DLC was offering any additional content, such as characters, they would have said so. This DLC is already low budget as is.
The folks going "Well, they didn't say the game wasn't going to get just tracks and nothing else." are missing the forest for the trees. You don't go out of your way to make your DLC sound cheaper if that stuff isn't there. This is business 101.
People talk about how unimportant characters are in Mario Kart, and maybe they have a valid point, but the fact is, each character has to be modeled, animated and tested endlessly to make sure they're properly implemented successfully. It's more money that Nintendo doesn't want to spend. The same goes for new karts and rearranged music. Think about how much money that would have costed to do that for 48 tracks. This is once again, DLC on a budget. It's truly a case of quantity over quality.
Filling Schedules:
The brilliant thing about this new content is that given that there are six of them on the way, Nintendo can now use them however they see fit? If there's a slow period of releases? Drop a new pack. The Holiday Season needs one more bomb? Drop a new pack. They've got breathing room of when they can drop these now, and that's a very good thing. It's an immediate hype driver (ha!) and it'll keep hype going for the next 18 months or so.
Nintendo Pulled A Street Fighter V:
Okay, so I'm sure some people are about to say "Where in the world is he going with this? Outer Space?"
You probably aren't wrong, but let me explain.
Street Fighter V is another game that got expanded with further content for years, including a re-release with additional content added in, just like Mario Kart. The newly announced sixth main installment had a development time that was extended due to things going on in the background that I won't get into here. In the meanwhile, SFV, a game that people believed was winding down support in preparation for the next game, was extended with an additional year of DLC.
Based on what we know, I strongly believe that is the case here. I believe at one point, there were plans for the next Mario Kart to hit the Switch, but due to MK8D's absolutely insane sales, Nintendo decided to concurrently have DLC made as a stopgap to keep interest strong, while development on the next Mario Kart continues for the next generation, much like the situation over at Capcom/Dimps. This content, much like the last season of SFV, is a stopgap. I hope all of that made sense, haha.
Switch 2:
Well, here's the tricky part of the whole thing. We don't currently know when this next console is coming out or when it's announcement is, either. The global chip shortage has been a huge problem, not just for Nintendo, but the entire world as a whole, and there's no end in sight. So, it's incredibly hard to say where the next Mario Kart fits into this, one thing that's very clear to say now is that the next Mario Kart will be released early into the new system's life cycle.
Which brings me to a new, new scoop...
Mario Kart X Is Reportedly A Soft Reboot:
(Logo once again by the amazing AstroseedP)
Multiple sources familiar with the situation have informed me that this new Mario Kart is being positioned as a "soft reboot". That is to say, the core aspects of Mario Kart aren't going anywhere and of course, the core Mario Kart cast aren't either. Do not expect old courses to appear in the base game. The game will heavily lean into the crossover aspect, which includes characters, courses and items. The game has reportedly been in development for about four years now, and given the ongoing mysterious situation with Switch 2, it will be quite some time before you see the game in action.
Regardless, it's truly an exciting prospect and I'm extremely eager to see what Yabuki and his team have been cooking up.
That's all for this article. I again apologize for the long wait. Thank you for reading and stay safe
if biff isnt in the game its literally unplayable just sayin
ReplyDeleteHmm...just want to offer some of my thoughts on the conclusions you reached:
ReplyDelete- Yeah, the tracks are uprezzed, though I'm surprised you didn't mention how the models are from Tour. Still, they've improved the model detail for some assets like the Toad balloons, added extra details like mushroom decorations on Sky Garden and MKTV vans on Toad Circuit, and some textures have also been improved (mostly the main roads, though some background elements like the waterwheel in Ninja Hideaway were also improved). I'm not holding my breath, but it makes me wonder if we didn't see the final versions of each track in the DLC.
- I'm not expecting new characters, karts, gliders, or tires either, but I don't think it'd take much to bring over characters from Tour that aren't in 8 Deluxe if the tracks are also being carried over.
- You're wrong about the rearranged music - it's subtle, but Coconut Mall was remixed (most noticeable with the saxophone, which sounds live recorded as in the base game). I doubt that every track will receive a remix, especially the Tour courses (and Sky Garden, which was remixed in Tour), but I feel like we'll at least get new renditions of Choco Mountain and Shroom Ridge.
Oh, so many, many things, where to begin. Let's start with this, "Occam's Razor: The simplest explanation is usually the best one"- no, that's not Occam's Razor. Many use that definition, but the actual definition is the outcome with the fewest variables is statistically the most accurate. There is no "best", there is the most accurate, due to the fewer variables affecting the outcome.
ReplyDeleteSecond, "This is an old Wii U game that Nintendo made when they were still having issues with HD development. Those days have long since ended and Nintendo's gotten it down to a science...", again, no. I present Breath of the Wild 2, Xenoblade 3, and Metroid Prime 4. If Nintendo has no problem with HD development, where are these games which were announced long, long before the 2020 pandemic? Look at the end credits of these HD games, see all the names? It takes an insane amount of staff (and time) to devlop them, they can't simply be thrown together in a year or two like they could in the past.
Third, "This year marks the 30th anniversary of Nintendo's most popular series." Nintendo doesn't always to anniversaries to their franchises. Miyamoto is the special case, because without him there would be no Nintendo as we know it in America today. His franchises are why Nintendo is now a household name in America.
Fourth, "Street Fighter V is another game that got expanded with further content for years, including a re-release with additional content added in, just like Mario Kart." Actually, GTA V is a better example for Mario Kart 8: DX, because that spanned multiple generations. In fact, GTA V is only a year older than MK 8, and Rockstar is STILL supporting that as the most recent GTA game, just as Nintendo is with MK 8:DX!
Fifth, the real reason Nintendo did the DLC- it's guaranteed that 43+ million have bought Mario Kart 8: Deluxe. It's unknown how many of these will buy Mario Kart 9 on the same system, because just because they have 8 doesn't mean they'll buy 9, especially parents who'll argue "You already have Mario Kart!". Don't try to use that "there's over 100 million Systems" either, because guess what, those 60 million also didn't buy 8:DX, so it's very unlikely they'll buy 9. However, with over 40 million installed, they know for sure those players have spent it. It is more likely that parents will allow cheaper DLC than they were to buy a new game. There's a higher probability the installed base will buy the DLC than fork out another $60 for what many see as the same game. THAT my friend, is Occam's Razor, it's got the higher probability of selling to the already installed base than trying to get those same 43 million to buy another similar game. It's why so few bought successive Nintendo games (look at sequels to their original, especially on the same Nintendo system, and notice they're lower, a certain percentage will buy the sequel, but it's extremely unlikely that the same or more will buy the sequel on that same system).
You didn’t sound like you were going into “outer space”. Anyone familiar with SFV knew what point you were going to make.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, give us the scoop on the Persona 5 fighting game (whether it’s happening, delayed, or just not happening). Would really appreciate that :)
This is a pretty cut and dry question, with an equal answer. Simple. You're not getting any of that. If the DLC was offering any additional content, such as characters, they would have said so. This DLC is already low budget as is.
ReplyDeleteSo, how come you think that Bandai Namco couldn't easily port the characters from Mario Kart Tour into Mario Kart 8 Deluxe but they can port the tracks from Mario Kart Tour?
Datamining the music shows that everything has new arrangements. Woops.
ReplyDelete