Nintendo on Wednesday night announced on Twitter that Mario Kart Tour will be its next mobile game. Nintendo says that the app is in development now and will launch by March 2019, which marks the end of the company’s next fiscal year. Unfortunately, that’s all that the company was willing to share about the game.
Providing that it launches before the Legend of Zelda game that is presumably still in the works, Mario Kart Tour will be the fifth first-party mobile game from Nintendo since it invested in mobile, following Miitomo and Super Mario Run in 2016 as well as Fire Emblem Heroes and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp last year.
In addition to the Mario Kart announcement, Nintendo also confirmed that the Nintendo Switch Online service will launch in September 2018. Similar to Xbox Live or PlayStation Network, the service was initially set to launch last fall, but was then pushed back to 2018. Nintendo refrained from sharing any specifics in terms of a launch date (or even a window), but now we know that it won’t be ready for prime time until the fall.
Nintendo Switch Online will cost $19.99 for a year-long membership, $7.99 for three months or $3.99 for one month. Beyond online play, the online service will also include a Classic Game Selection feature which will allow subscribers to download a classic Nintendo title for free, such as Super Mario Bros. 3 for the NES.
Further details regarding Mario Kart Tour and the long-awaited Nintendo Switch Online subscription service are likely incoming, but for now, all we have is the information that Nintendo shared in tweets on Wednesday.
