Mario Kart 8's "Mercedes-Benz" DLC Coming to The US

[Steven Bogos]

Mario Kart 8's "Mercedes-Benz" DLC Coming to The US

The Mercedes-Benz-themed Mario Kart 8 kart will be available as a free download.

Remember that bizarre Mario/Mercedes-Benz crossover commercial? [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/134870-Mario-Trades-Kart-For-Mercedes-Benz-in-Japanese-Commercial] Well, as part of an on going cross-promotional campaign for Mercedes' new GLA class car, a "Mario Kart-ified" version of the vehicle was announced to be coming as Mario Kart 8's first piece of free downloadable content. At the time, the DLC was only announced for Japan, but now, Nintendo of America has confirmed that it will also be coming to the US.

"We're planning to release a GLA-Class kart from Mercedes-Benz for Mario Kart 8 this summer," said NOA over its official Twitter account [https://twitter.com/nintendoamerica/status/480017305502773248]. "Stay tuned for more info!" The initial Japanese announcement also stated that the DLC was coming in "summer," so we will probably end up seeing it at the same time, if not shortly after, Japan.

Nintendo has been dipping its toes into DLC this generation, a practice which the company was slow to adopt. New Super Mario Bros. U, for example, had the New Super Luigi U DLC made available both as a digital download, and as a retail disk. However, the fact that the Mercedes-Benz cart is being released as a single, free, download suggests that additional DLC karts and characters may make their way to Mario Kart 8 in the future.

It's certainly a pretty odd cross-promotion, and the Mercedes-Benz does looks quite out-of-place in Mario Kart, but hey, free is free.

Source: Twitter [https://twitter.com/nintendoamerica/status/480017305502773248]

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[AnthrSolidSnake]

...huh...Well, okay. I, uhh...yay Mario?

 

[orangeapples]

Mario Kart has got Mercedes-Benz. Forza, Driveclub: your move.

Spoiler

not to be taken seriously

 

[chozo_hybrid]

It's a freebie, so long as it doesn't make all others perform like crap in comparison then it's all good

 

[Roxas1359]

I remember reading before that they said it was gonna be Japan exclusive, and I thought "well that's dumb." It'll be interesting to see how it preforms, but one thing that would have been interesting is if each region got a specific car only in that region, but they all had the same stats. The PAL regions would get something like a Ferrari, while the US could get a muscle car or something.

 

[EiMitch]

As least this DLC isn't behind a paywall like I feared when I first read the tagline. Thank goodness. Not many things would be more disgusting than double-dipping in product placement revenue.

 

[an annoyed writer]

That's one of the most ridiculous and absurd things I've seen all day, and I've been spending the whole day watching The Completionist episodes, which has a laser clown. Too bad the new mercs are so damn ugly too, on top of meshing poorly with Mario's aesthetic, but whatever. this is definitely a thing.

 

[Symbio Joe]

"OH LORD; won't you buy me, a Mercedes Benz. My friends all drive non branded cool fantasy cars of hilarious variaty I must make amends." And this is what makes it intresting to follow because it is so unlikely to be top downloaded content.

 

[Crazie_Guy]

It's like when you're watching a nice TV drama and then they have to drive somewhere and they spend 3 minutes on fancy driving shot, get a good close-up of the brand logo, and the characters completely drop everything they were talking about in order to mention the on-board GPS or a cupholder or something. And then you realize someone got payed a bunch of money to trick you into watching a commercial.

 

[QuadFish]

We really need to invent different words for paid DLC and free DLC, like how in the old days expansion packs and game patches were different things. I instinctively read this and thought "Nintendo wants people to pay for this bollocks?" and then changed my mind as soon as it was free. Some way to more quickly separate greedy money-grubbing companies from ones that want to give you cool things for free needs to happen.

 

[Olas]

Are the regular karts in Mariokart too fun and creative for you? Now you can drive in a boring out of place piece of blatant product placement.

Come on Nintendo, you used to have more dignity than this, do you really want follow in the [a href="http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/04/02/simcity-dlc-nissan-leaf/"]footsteps of EA[/a]?

If it turns out that this car is the best Kart in the game I'll really be disappointed.