Back in 2014, it’s safe to say Nintendo wasn’t the gaming industry titan we know today. Just a year and a half after the Wii U launch, the company was facing significant financial headwinds. Desperate to boost revenue beyond console and game sales, Nintendo started exploring new licensing opportunities for its beloved characters. This quest for alternative income streams culminated in August 2014 with the Mercedes DLC pack for Mario Kart 8. This downloadable content introduced a trio of real-world Mercedes-Benz vehicles into the vibrant and whimsical racing game.
However, the reaction from Nintendo’s fanbase at the time was far from celebratory. Product placement in video games wasn’t a novel concept, and it persists to this day. Think of Monster Energy’s presence in Death Stranding or Cup Noodle’s cameo in Final Fantasy 15. Yet, this particular partnership felt different, almost jarring. The Mushroom Kingdom, a realm of innocent fun and fantasy, had never been directly infiltrated by such overt real-world branding. For many, Mario represented a pure, childlike joy, and the Mercedes deal seemed to shatter that illusion, reeking of a purely financial, and somewhat desperate, motive – which, in reality, it was.
Related: Why The Mario Movie Grossing One Billion Dollars Matters
Beyond the slightly unsettling blend of Mario’s cartoon universe with actual automobiles, the choice of luxury commuter vehicles felt particularly out of sync with the spirit of Mario Kart. One could perhaps envision Donkey Kong tearing up the track in a rugged Jeep Wrangler or Yoshi speeding through Rainbow Road in a sleek McLaren. But a Mercedes GLA? It’s a compact SUV, more suited for suburban errands than dodging Koopa shells. While two of the Mercedes additions were racing models, it’s debatable whether a classic 1957 roadster and a Grand Prix car – one even historically linked to Adolf Hitler – truly belong amidst the lighthearted chaos of Mario Kart.
Nintendo surely anticipated some level of fan skepticism, but as the saying goes, desperate times call for desperate measures. Interestingly, this wasn’t a case of corporate greed at the expense of the company’s integrity. It’s well-documented that Satoru Iwata, Nintendo’s then-CEO, took a significant pay cut in early 2014 to alleviate the company’s financial strain. In the grand scheme of things, it was just a small DLC pack, a minor brand collaboration in a single iteration of a kart racing franchise on one console. But this perspective overlooks a crucial detail: Mario Kart 8 was destined to become one of the most successful and enduring video games ever created.
The enduring lesson here revolves around integrity and unforeseen consequences. No one could have predicted in 2014 the remarkable resurgence of Mario Kart 8 on the Nintendo Switch as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. The Switch, now the third best-selling console of all time with over 122 million units sold, breathed new life into the game. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has since become the best-selling title on the Switch, surpassing 50 million copies and consistently outselling newer releases year after year, even in 2023, with heavy hitters like Tears of the Kingdom in the market. And there, in this gaming phenomenon, before every race, are those Mercedes-Benz vehicles, prominently featured. Whatever Mercedes paid Nintendo for this exposure, it’s almost certainly a bargain in retrospect.
In 2023, the initial outcry over the Mercedes integration has largely faded. A decade has passed, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe remains the king of kart racers, and players have, for the most part, accepted this once-controversial product placement, a relic from Nintendo’s less prosperous era. Now, when browsing the kart selection screen and encountering Bowser squeezed into the “Hitlermobile,” a mix of emotions surfaces. There’s a lingering disappointment that Nintendo felt compelled to make such a deal, a reminder that persists even now. Yet, simultaneously, there’s a sense of respect for Nintendo’s incredible turnaround. The Mercedes DLC might still be a bit cringe-inducing, but it serves as a tangible symbol of Nintendo’s journey from financial uncertainty to unprecedented success.
Next: Mario Party Is Secretly The Best Mario Sports Game
