End of an era: Nintendo's long-running Mario Kart 8 deluxe Black Friday bundle is no more
Blog Andrew Joseph 10 Nov , 2025 0
After seven years of offering its most consistent deals on new Nintendo Switch systems around Black Friday every year, it appears Nintendo has finally discontinued its traditional holiday bundle of the Nintendo Switch 1 and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for $299.99.
There is no Nintendo Switch “Mario Kart 8” Deluxe Black Friday Bundle this year, the end of an era. https://t.co/jLcw3Rupku pic.twitter.com/bhYAvFLTrQ
— IGN Deals (@IGNDeals) November 10, 2025
That's in addition to the Black Friday deals Nintendo announced today, which include various Nintendo games being marked down to $30 and a microSD Express card for the Nintendo Switch 2 being $20 off for Cyber Monday, but it's worth noting that there are no discounts on any consoles.
The Mario Kart 8 Nintendo Switch bundle has been a staple of Nintendo’s Black Friday offerings for the seventh consecutive year. Starting from 2018, the second year of the birth of Nintendo Switch, It has reappeared every year since.
Its disappearance from this year's lineup is indicative of several recent trends. Most obviously, it's the first holiday season for the Nintendo Switch 2, and it's understandable that Nintendo wants to sell a lot of Switch 2s rather than steer people toward cheaper versions of the system that are quickly becoming outdated.
Beyond that, there's new Mario Kart: Mario Kart World in town. If Nintendo isn't interested in inadvertently cannibalizing Switch 2 sales, then it's definitely not considering Mario Kart 8 Deluxe taking sales away from Mario Kart World. Given that the Switch 2 was released just a few months ago, it's not too early to expect the Switch 2 + Mario Kart World bundle to be on sale this holiday season. Sorry, maybe next year.
Nintendo, this is also true Just raised the price The US retail version of the Nintendo Switch 1 has increased from $299.99 to $339.99, as well as the prices of the OLED and Lite versions, Alarmo and Joy-Con 2 controllers. The company warned at the time that pricing for the Nintendo Switch 2, physical and digital games, and Nintendo Switch Online memberships “may become necessary in the future.”
Although Nintendo didn't explicitly name tariffs as the reason, IGN spoke to multiple analysts The continued increase in U.S. tariffs on the countries Nintendo uses for hardware production have been pointedly pointed throughout the year as a possible reason for this choice. This might also explain why Nintendo isn't interested in discounting hardware during the holidays this time around.
All of this adds up to the idea that Nintendo has officially retired its popular holiday bundle. Will we see a Nintendo Switch 2 variant of this bundle in the next few years? As games and systems become more expensive, one can only hope so.
Stay tuned to IGN for all our news Black Friday 2025 Coverageincluding the best discounts on games, systems, and basically everything.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter at IGN. You can find her posts at BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Have a story tip? Send it to [email protected].