Mario Karting World begins developing on Switch 1 and suffers from performance struggles until Switch 2 delays provide “Ray of Hope”
Blog Andrew Joseph 22 May , 2025 0
Switch 2 launch title Mario Karting World Originally in development five years ago, it was only used in the original Nintendo Switch.
Nintendo, however, said its development team worked to get the Mario Kart World's 24 player concept to work on its aging switch 1 hardware – to the point where a major technological compromise was made.
Finally, these compromises were abandoned in a new way. Back in 2020, Mario Kart World developers said they had a rough idea about Nintendo's Switch 2 Tech Specs, so they started discussing the project's delay to Nintendo's next-generation machines.
Speak as part of the revelation Ask the developer Interviews, Nintendo's Mario Kart World Team said they are close to the concept of combining open world gameplay with 24 player multiplayer “from a calm and collected programming perspective” to see if it's possible.
However, the team quickly decided not to.
“It's hard for us to blend everything we want, so we always realize the rewards of giving up,” said Kenta Sato, world programming director at Mario Kart.
“We talked about things like turning down the visuals, reducing resolution, and even considering frame rate down to 30 fps in some cases. It's a tough situation.”
Despite the confidence in the concept, the Mario Kart World team continued to try to make it work, but felt they “kicked the can”, according to producer Kosuke Yabuki.
“We knew it would get messy,” Yabuki continued. “But when we decided to release the Booster Course Pass for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, we thought it would give us more time to continue developing.
“That was when the conversation came up with moving it to the Nintendo Switch 2 system, which suddenly opened up the possibility of what we could do. It was really a piece of hope.”
Interviews show that this is in “around 2020” when Nintendo developers have an idea about the expected specs of the next system (Switch 2)”, but before the work development unit is available. So, using estimates of the Switch 2 power they are able to play, the Mario Kart World Team continues to move forward.
“If we included everything we wanted in this vast world of the game, it wouldn't run at 60 fps and would suffer from constant frame rates,” Sato said. “I think there are a lot of people on the team who are worried about whether we can really manage it.”
“But once we decided to release the game on Switch 2, we hope our concerns would evaporate immediately.” “I remember being happy when I found out that we could express more than we were initially.”
Tom Phillips is the news editor for IGN. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him at bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social