BERLIN: Nintendo is shutting down its mobile game Mario Kart Tour at the end of September, the Japanese gaming giant announced on X and through an in-game notice, prompting an angry response from many gamers on social media.
"Service for the Mario Kart Tour game ends on Sept 29 at 11:00 pm PT / Sept 30 at 8:00 am CEST," Nintendo said on July 8.
To the annoyance of many fans, the company is also not allowing the game to be played offline. The permanent shutdown of Mario Kart Tour also means that players will lose all their trained drivers, vehicles and gliders.
Many players will have invested considerable sums in the game and fans have angrily taken to social media to criticise Nintendo, particularly at the decision to forego any option to continue using purchased content in an offline version of the game.
"Realllllly sucks that an offline/complete version isn’t being made," reads one comment on X with 4,000 likes. "It sucks to know all my progress will just be gone forever now."
No new Gold Pass subscriptions are possible, and automatic subscription renewals have also been disabled, Nintendo said. The sale of the in-game currency Rubies has likewise been discontinued, though existing credit can still be used up.
As a small consolation, Nintendo is making the Gold Pass subscription benefits available free of charge to all players until Sept 30 – with the exception of subscription renewal rewards.
Mario Kart Tour launched in Sept 2019. Following Super Mario Run, it was one of Nintendo's first forays onto smartphones. The game lets players master race tracks inspired by famous locations around the world, push rivals out of the way, collect points and upgrade their drivers and karts. – dpa
