Does Nintendo think the $80 price of Mario Kart is reasonable?

Mario Karting World Positioned as Switch 2The biggest selling point is easy to understand why. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has been on the Nintendo Switch Switch sales list for many years and remains the best-selling game in the Switch and Mario Kart series. Nintendo is apparently trying to capture the lightning in the bottle again for subsequent consoles, with the new Mario Kart ready to accelerate the starting area next to the system. With the premium product’s high price: $80, it’s a price tag that surpasses expectations for the next-generation game’s $70 price.

As part of the Switch 2 demo, Nintendo is a major conversation point when it removes packages from Mario Kart. More specifically: What makes this game demand such a high price? When asked, Nintendo's answer was essentially proven to be in the pudding – once we see everything, the reasons behind the price increase will become obvious.

“We're going to look at different prices and similar software based on the strong strength of the experience,” Nintendo's Bill Trinen told us in an interview in early April. “People will be able to learn more about the game. I think as they start to learn more about the game, they'll be very excited about what's available there.”

In the same answer, he even pointed out that a special Nintendo is directly focused on the Mario Kart world. So now that Nintendo Direct has made its debut, it is fair to ask: Is the presentation based on a value proposition? Can the features of this new game be traced back to justify the price tag?

How you spend dollars is a personal decision, so the answer will certainly be different. But it's hard to say today's talk was positioned as “to learn more about the game” and open your eyes to the value proposition, which makes a particularly powerful case that this Mario Kart game has a much larger scope than the rest of the series, even beyond what we already knew in the first hands-on session at the Switch 2 reveal event.

During the unveiling event, we learned that the Mario Kart world has a huge open world that you can explore freely in Free Roaming Mode, and in addition to the standard Grand Prix, there will be a new knockout tour mode that eliminates players along the checkpoint. The lineup is larger and can accommodate new large players, with only 24 racers at a time, and racers can unlock a wide variety of outfits to greatly change the look. Mario Kart World is also positioned as a showcase for the new GameChat feature, which is widely introduced as friends hang out and talk about trash.

So, what do we know about the Mario Kart world today? We learned that besides the Grand Prix and the Knockout Battle mode is coming back There are two competitive modes. We understand this Free roaming will have collections and secrets Look for it, although finding their rewards are still unclear. We've seen some New rolemore clear How to unlock clothingand learned about such Rewind function. Even a demonstration Mocking the return of Rainbow Road As a reward for completing other Grand Prix competitions, this is not surprising, but our curiosity is truly shocking. What will this new version of the iconic track look like? All in all, this is a great comprehensive overview of large-scale release games.

But as far as new content goes, there aren't many there. Battle mode is a nice addition, but it is by no means the main attraction of Mario Kart games. Free roaming tasks may be much more than we realize, but it is hard to say based on what we have learned today. There are no more Grand Prix competitions or real-time service methods to improve scope. Our understanding of the Mario Kart world is not significantly different from what we understand today than yesterday, so it is difficult to conclude that the speech answers the lingering questions we encountered when we first heard about the price.

The most likely explanation for the price is given by Serkan Toto shortly after the announcement: Nintendo's price is $80 Because people will pay $80 to this end. It's a big launch game that looks great and is the successor to one of Nintendo's top sellers, which will continue to sell in the Switch 2 LifeSpan for years. Nintendo is actively pricing, but not exceeding what consumers are willing to pay. Baby, that's capitalism.

To be fair, Nintendo will provide them with rest if consumers wish to take it. The Switch 2 bundle with a digital copy of Mario Kart World is only $50 more than the standard bundle, and even on the original switch, it costs a lot less than buying a new game. That Bundle only available until the end of the year,but, Booking is not open in the United States yet. We have to look at the availability of the bundle.

To be clear, the Mario Kart world looks great. It seems ambitious in visually, the open world aspect seems to be ambitious, the roster is a delightful guy who is a long-time Nintendo fan and, above all, it's Just an explosion. I'll get it as soon as possible and then stand out from it. All of our Nintendo fans do this, and that's just the point. Nintendo is charging a high price for a great game because it knows it looks great. Nintendo Direct doesn't offer some shocking content, which suddenly makes $80 meaningful because it doesn't need it. This is Mario Kart's world, and we just live in it.