Start Your Engines: Mario Kart Is Coming To Your Phone
Ben Geier
(CNN Money) -- Get ready to race.
Nintendo has announced that its popular Mario Kart series is coming to mobile phones.
The iconic video game company made the announcement on Twitter:
"The checkered flag has been raised and the finish line is near," Nintendo tweeted. "A new mobile application is now in development: Mario Kart Tour! #MarioKartTour Releasing in the fiscal year ending in March 2019."
Nintendo's first mobile game was "Miitomo," a social networking game released in March 2016. The company will eliminate that title in May.
Its first Mario mobile was "Super Mario Run," which launched in December 2016. The game broke download records in the days after it was released. It has been downloaded more than 200 million times.
"Super Mario Run" costs $10 to play (after a short free demo level). In the weeks after the game was released, very few people actually paid for the full game, according to analytics company App Annie.
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Since then, Nintendo has released mobile games for the Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem franchises.
Switch, the latest Nintendo console, has been a sales success for Nintendo. The system sold nearly 15 million units in 2017. That's more than the Wii U, Nintendo's last system, sold in its entire lifespan. Critics widely praised the Mario game for the system, "Super Mario Odyssey."
Switch games can be played on a television or in handheld mode.
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Nintendo's stock price has doubled since it released the Switch.
Mario and friends are heading for another screen as well — the big screen. Nintendo announced recently that a new movie was being made based on the franchise. The Mario Bros. were featured in a mostly panned 1993 live action flick.
The-CNN-Wire
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