You’ll have to wait longer to get your hands on the very first Mario Kart game for Android and iOS.
Nintendo has confirmed that the launch of Mario Kart Tour has been pushed back to this summer. The much-anticipated title was originally scheduled to arrive by the end of March, but Nintendo says it needs more time to “improve quality of the application.”
It is Nintendo’s second big delay in just one week.
Nintendo first confirmed Mario Kart Tour for mobile exactly one year ago today. The incredible popularity of the franchise — which is loved by almost everyone — means it has become one of the company’s most anticipated games for Android and iOS.
Nintendo told us last October that Mario Kart was still on track for an early 2019 release, but the Japanese company today followed up with some disappointing news.
Mario Kart Tour will cross the finish line this summer
The launch of Mario Kart Tour has been pushed back until the summer “in order to improve quality of the application and expand the content offerings after launch,” according to a statement contained in Nintendo’s quarterly earnings report.
The news comes just six days after Nintendo told fans it was restarting development of Metroid Prime 4 for the Switch with a new studio because it wasn’t happy with the progress made so far.
Nintendo fans are somewhat used to delays here and there, then. And as The Verge points out, Mario and Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto once reminded us, “A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad.”
Mario Kart Tour will be free-to-play
When Mario Kart Tour does arrive, it will be free-to-play on Android and iOS, like other Nintendo titles on mobile.
That doesn’t mean you’ll get to play a few tracks before paying $10 to unlock the rest of the game like in Super Mario Run; it means you’ll be able to enjoy almost everything for free, though optional in-app purchases will be available.
