Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Maintenance Is Due Tomorrow, And Fans Are Speculating

It better be I’m tired of waiting

It better be tired of waiting i seriously hope its the DLC tracks.

I'm really excited for wave 2 but if they release it around the same time as XC3 than the DLC has to wait, XC3 has a way higher priority to me

I'm not really interested to wait for uncertain thing so I keep myself busy with my game backlogs or build my other games library.

The last time Mario Kart 8 Deluxe had scheduled maintenance was 7th June, so we've been through this song and dance before.

The only thing that really gives it weight is that 7-Eleven tip-off. The counterpoint to that however is would Nintendo really release Wave 2 on Xenoblade Chronicles 3 launch day instead of say early August for example, where they have nothing coming out.

Hope so, any longer and I think it loses momentum a bit.

@Folkloner There's also the aniversary of the snes mario kart at the end of august. They're probably waiting for that!

Would love a new wave, yet I know I will look at this at the end of 2023 and just laugh.

If they plan to space out the release of the waves evenly until the end of 2023, the second wave should be here any day now. Hoping Maple Treeway is included in Wave 2, love that track.

@Olliemar28
Playing other games are still more interesting than waiting for uncertain thing.
The sky is not falling whether they will announce about 2nd wave or not.

Makes sense as when I looked at pass I think the average drop worked out at every 4 months based on release windows and number of packs

@garfreek Yeah. Just my dark humour as I don't think it remotely likely but imagine if on 27th Aug they release Wave 2 and it's all revamped versions of SNES Mario Kart courses

I'm glad MK fans might finally be getting their due, but why now of all times? What was the holdup to not release this in early June or July? Also why release this the same time/day as their 2nd biggest release of the summer in Xenoblade (Splatoon will probably be 1st)?

Im so sour about buying mk8 booster pass and nintendo's stupid mysterious secrecy and failure to deliver the paid dlc in a predictable or satisfactory manner, and mk8 being last gen console game. I don't trust them with Mario Kart anymore. Is it a flagship title or not?

Really hope so, is it not overdue at this point if they plan for all waves to be released by 2023 end?

@WoomyNNYes
I was thinking some of the 3rd part kart racing games did better job than Nintendo.
How about Paw Patrol Grand Prix or Race with Ryan ? 😆

likely they will reveal wave 2 next week not this week its all about Xenoblade Chronicles 3 this week and Nintendo will want all eyes on that and Mario Kart DLC will only just overshadow Xenoblade

@KBuckley27
The vast majority of Mario Kart fans don't care about Xenoblade.

@Anti-Matter I played through story mode of Crash Team Racing yesterday.

@steventonysmith You doing alright fam?

I really don't get the people hyping this up or complaining about the wait personally. It's not like these are big new releases. There are plenty of other larger, newer experiences to try while you wait for your 8 new courses that, as history shows, you will inevitably complain about anyway. That said, if this is the experience you are pining for, more power to you, I just personally don't get it. Coming from someone who adores Mario Kart 8.

@steventonysmith Are you going to say anything of substance, or just low-key passive aggressively disagree with every other comment?

I like to think that Nintendo are just putting on this maintenance to mess with the heads of those desperate for the new tracks.

I am really looking forward to this and I don't mind if it takes a while. Personnely I didn't expect this DLC at all and the low price makes it more of a present, so I am very grateful for this.

We had gone a pretty long time without any MK 8 content anyway, so Waiting a little bit wouldn’t hurt, plus, we are getting MK content still, so I’m happy. And wile I’m not playing it, we are getting it yet Xenoblade 3, and much more that has come out that it can easily hold you over.

Wario Colusseum
Wario Colusseum
Wario Colusseum

@steventonysmith Nintendo doesn't care they clearly want Xenoblade to have the spotlight

@KBuckley27
Nintendo doesn't care, they beat to their own drum and make nonsense decisions all the time so don't try to approach this like a normal business. Nintendo can and will release the new Mario Kart tracks wherever they want

We know all the tracks that are coming... it's literally every course that's on Tour that isn't already in MK8D. So yea, I'll play it when it arrives but I really don't care when it lands or what order Nintendo assigns tracks to cups.

@WoomyNNYes I totally agree. Yeah, I am glad we are getting more tracks. But the Switch is the first console to not have its own proper Mario Kart. While I suppose forgivable, I am still very disappointed what Nintendo is doing with its most popular franchise. It’s going to turn into subscription…,

@Olliemar28 please do that!

I'll believe it when I see it.

And honestly I'm ready to be let down by the mobile HD polished graphics once more.

I am going out on a limb here and say we will get them next Wednesday. This would reset the expected dates so that they fall in Aug., Dec., May, Aug., and lastly Dec. 2023

@steventonysmith Lol are you flaming everyone who wants more tracks? You sound more lame than those waiting

They probably just need to do some maintenance on the karts after all the miles put on them over the years. LOL

Nintendo's terrible communication make these DLC drops annoying rather than fun events to look forward to.

All I can say from looking at the schedule and extrapolating the amount of time between waves from when the Track Pass launched through the end of 2023 (22 months between March 18th, 2022 and the end of 2023 divided by 6 waves is roughly 3-4 months estimated between waves) is that a second wave is DUE by this point. I realize they'll be here when they get here regardless, but if this maintenance really is signaling the release of the second wave, IMHO Nintendo is taking a strange approach by doing it so stealthily as opposed to generating even a modicum of excitement from fans beforehand.

With all the maintenance happening this week I still wonder if perhaps there might be a full-scale first-party Direct coming up; there are still significant questions regarding the Christmas season and back half of 2022, still no final release date for Advance Wars: Reboot Camp, and obviously no Wave 2 for the Track Pass so far.

We'll see, at any rate. Nintendo's gonna Nintendo, for better or worse.

Fingers crossed for a shadow drop 🤞

Welp whenever the courses show, I will be ready but no big deal. I have plenty to play before then.

I paid $25 to sit and wait 5 MONTHS for Wave 2. On the bright side, this mathematically cannot happen again, as If the next four waves were released every 5 months, Wave 3 would come in Januray 2023, Wave 4 in June 2023, Wave 5 in November 2023, and Wave 6 in April 2024. So they have to speed up their release schedule if they want to keep the "All waves released by the end of 2023" marketing intact. But, Nintendo being Nintendo, we'll probably get Wave 6 on December 31st, 2023.

I hope the maintenance is a sign of release, though the same thing happened in early June and nothing came of it.

The most logical timing from Nintendo's side of things would be late August given:

• Mario Kart 30th anniversary
• Gives NSO Expansion Pack something in August
• Gives Mario Strikers some room as wave 2 would do to Strikers what Splatoon 2 did to ARMS if too close
• XC3 gets the attention it deserves

If it does happen tonight/early tomorrow, it would be a nice distraction from the wait for XC3 to arrive but if not XC3 releasing on Friday would be a nice distraction from the wait for wave 2.

If it takes them this long to release a few extra tracks that are already in mario kart tour then mario kart 9 must still be a loooong time away

Would not bet on it

@Anti-Matter you mean those games meant for 3 year olds?

Would be great to see more tracks. Love the game and bought the pass. With their own deadline of releasing everything by the end of 2023, they would technically need to release new content at least every four months. In this case by the end of July, to be on track. Granted they could easily extend this, but you would think given the schedule that they would have had a good portion of the content nearly ready to release. Still would be great to see what is coming.

@Malones2792
Well, why not?
I have interest with those games.

Maybe they will announce Wave 2 tomorrow, and then made available next week...

@Folkloner I think I'd need to lie down for a while if that happened! 😂🤣

@WoomyNNYes The thing has sold like 50 million copies, which makes it the best selling title on Switch by a long shot, so yeah I'd say it's a flagship. That said, it sold that well WITHOUT anything new being added to it, so clearly they feel no rush to tack more onto it. As stupid as that is.

Only thing i get from this is, they are really going to milk switch till 2025, if not, whats the point in launching content of one of their stronger frsnchises by 2023 just to release a new game/console just a few months time?

@Crono1973 particularly the Wiggler!

This update can't come fast enough!

I just hope the Courses they choose get better from now on. Examples being Coconut Mall & Choco Mountain were fine, but just didn't go either way enough in either changing them with MK8 gravity stuff or full on faithfulness, making these legacy maps seems more bland than before.

I also don't see how XC3's release would affect it or vice versa - it's not like the DLC has a story that can be spoiled or the servers will shut down anytime soon, you can pick up 'n play whenever since it's not going anywhere. Though I will agree that August would be better thematically, not like most trying to truly experience XB3 will beat it that fast anyways.

Actually it's been over 4 months since Wave 1 released. I don't know what Nintendo is doing here, but this is some grade A BS.

Here's hoping that Waluigi Pinball gets added.

Look, i'm not a speculative mind, so I can stand to wait. I'm more concerned with saving up for TMNT: The Cowabunga Collection and the Genesis Mini 2, anyway.

@Ninfan Because any new tracks will be saved for the next Mario Kart which will surely be released on Nintendo's next console. And just because you've already played those tracks doesn't mean all of us have. Most of the tracks in Wave 1 I had never played before. Only Coconut Mall and Choco Mountain.

I find it a little strange that they're taking this long to port over course almost directly from the mobile game.

Like, I'm not a game developer so I don't know how it works, but fans have shown that it can be done relatively quickly? So like, it feels weird to have it take this long.

So with that in mind, it makes me hopeful that they are taking this time to actually upgrade the graphics of the stages as well as overhaul them some to actually be better. Sky Garden from the first wave was rather bad and clearly designed for the mobile game if you looked at the track map versus the one from the original game (Super Circuit).

I don't think the next wave is likely to go live within the next week or two due to XC3 just being released.
Also Nintendo only said all waves would be released by the end of 2023; not necessarily that there will be the same interval of time between each wave.

@steventonysmith no idea what you were trying to say but get rekt son lmao

But on topic, I dunno, I don't like getting my hopes up. Could something or could be nothing, I'd rather be surprised than disappointed. Honestly I would have preferred to have timeframes given when the DLC pack was announced, but also I know these things take time, staffing can be inconsistent, and it's hard to gauge how much you'd need to make the content. I'd rather the devs not be rushed than have concrete dates, upon further reflection.

Online maintenance happens all the time and has never indicated the launch of content or DLC updates.

I was actually seriously disappointed with the first wave of DLC tracks; the more simplistic art style clearly ripped straight from Tour and a complete lack of zero-g elements. I’d love to think they are taking extra time to put more effort into this next wave but I suspect that’s wishful thinking.

Direct incoming!