April 17’s Mario Kart World Direct Will Be Short Says Nintendo

On April 17, Mario Kart World is getting a Direct dedicated exclusively to the upcoming open-world kart racer. But if you were hoping for a deep and in-depth dive into he first Switch 2 game revealed by Nintendo, you might want to reset those expectations; Nintendo has confirmed the video presentation will be about 15 minutes long.

On Wednesday, Nintendo posted a YouTube link for the upcoming Direct to its official website and included this comment below:

Join us on April 17 at 6 a.m. PT to learn more about Mario Kart World for Nintendo Switch 2 in the Mario Kart World Direct. The livestream will be roughly 15 minutes.

6 a.m. PT translates to 9 a.m. ET and 2 p.m. in the UK. If you want to know specifically when the Direct will go live in your neck of the woods, just click this link.

So yeah, not a huge Direct by any means. I doubt we are going to get a rundown on every track, character, and power-up. Instead, this is likely going to be a Direct focused on summing up a lot of the info we learned about during the Treehouse streams, while announcing a few new details. Perhaps some surprising character cameos or the ability to remix tracks and share them with friends? 15 minutes is more than enough time to talk about a few new features, explain some online details, and show off some new gameplay.

What I don’t expect will be included in tomorrow’s Mario Kart World video event is an apology or new explanation for the $80 price tag, which has upset many fans online. I also don’t expect Nintendo to announce a new, lower price. Maybe it’ll confirm that all future updates and DLC will be free to try to make the price a better value, but I don’t see Nintendo turning the ship around now. The kart racer is due out on the same day as the Switch 2, June 5.

.