As Mario Kart Tour approaches its 3rd anniversary, Nintendo chooses to completely change the economic model of the game. Random gives way to a fixed store and no longer highlights lootboxes.
End clap for Mario Kart Tour’s gacha and lootboxes
Since its release in September 2019, Mario Kart Tour has featured gacha mechanics. The characters have more or less objects according to the circuits, the cups or even the leagues. This is also the case with their Karts, placing great importance on the collection. To obtain these different parts, players must “shoot” temporary pipes containing “light objects”. That is to say that out of 100 trials, there will necessarily be 1 with the character highlighted in the pipe. Other types of pipes exist, but this is the main one and represents a good part of the offer.
These pipes are bought with rubies. These are obtained either through in-game missions (low-medium quantity), or by buying them in the shop or as a bonus to a premium subscription, the “Gold Pass”. In short, Mario Kart Tour offered a classic gacha system to promote fairly expensive lootboxes.
A noticeable development over the years
Fortunately for players, and avoiding losing most of them, Nintendo has taken several actions since the official release to reduce the big gap between F2P players, “dolphins” (regular but low spending) and “whales” (huge spending) . Among other things, we can mention the arrival of Alternative Tokens, free tips per season, daily rewards or an overall increase in the free generation of rubies.
Last notable point in this evolution; the Miis. Introduced in early 2022, these can only be obtained through the competition or a dedicated, fixed shop. Thus, unlike the other characters, the obtaining is fixed, with a price in rubies varying from 70 to 100.
Last “Lap” of the track for the pipes
In this context, the update of the 3 years of Mario Kart Tour was particularly awaited. In addition to the usual big bonuses, many leaks pointed to the arrival of the Battle multiplayer mode. However, players did not expect such a sharp turnaround in the business model. While Nintendo’s communication remains clear, the long-term future of gaming is a big unknown. The company’s vision of its mobile opuses is vague and some are worried when they observe the closure in November of Dragalia Lost, another F2P in its ecosystem.
In the future, the lootboxes will be replaced by a fixed “in light” shop, defined by season. The prices should more or less match those of the Mii Shop to still make the purchase of rubies profitable. Finally, note that the advantages that the characters could have during a spotlight will be removed.
