Huge Nintendo Switch Exclusive Reportedly No Longer Releasing This Year

A big Nintendo Switch exclusive game originally planned to release this year will now hit the [...]

By Tyler Fischer

A big Nintendo Switch exclusive game originally planned to release this year will now hit the Switch and Switch Lite in 2021, according to a new report. As you may know, Nintendo's 2020 pipeline currently looks a bit light. Not only does it look like neither The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 nor Bayonetta 3 will hit this year, but an even bigger exclusive rumored to drop this year, Mario Kart 9, has been internally delayed.

Nintendo hasn't officially announced Mario Kart 9, but rumors started pointing to its existence back in January. And obviously Nintendo is working on a new mainline installment of the series. Not only is the series a stalwart within the Nintendo portfolio, but Mario Kart 8 is one of the best-selling games of the last 10 years. As of earlier this year, it has sold a massive 33 million copies and counting. That's pretty wild, and so it's not very surprising to hear Nintendo is currently hard at work on a new installment.

That said, while rumors pinned the game for a 2020 release, it looks like this is no longer happening, presumably due to delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The report comes way of prominent Nintendo leaker Vergeben, an industry insider who has proven to be reliable in the past. That said, while the source has been reliable in the past, it doesn't automatically mean this scoop is true or fully accurate. In other words, nothing here is official, and thus should be taken with a grain of salt.

Again, it's not a question of if Mario Kart 9 is in development, but when it will release. That said, when it does, it will be the first Mario Kart game natively built for the Switch. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was simply a port of Wii U's Mario Kart 8.

At the moment of publishing, Nintendo has not commented on this rumor, and it's unlikely it will. Further, it sounds like we may need to wait a bit longer to hear about the latest Mario Kart game.

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