Nintendo partners with Velan Studios to bring mixed reality gaming experience to Mario Kart

Nintendo has partnered with the tech specialist Velan Studios to launch a new Mario Kart mixed reality experience that will turn a player’s home into a Mario Kart racecourse to be traversed in both the physical and virtual worlds.

Called Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit, the new mixed reality game is launching to the Nintendo Switch next month and combines a camera-enabled physical ,’remote controlled’ Mario Kart and course gate markers that together will turn any living space into a Mario Kart circuit. Players can design and construct courses in the real world, before racing the circuit in a mixed reality experience.

“We are thrilled to partner with Velan Studios for Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit,” said Tom Prata, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of strategic initiatives. “Through this collaboration, we are providing fans with a one of a kind, interactive experience that is only available on the Nintendo Switch family of systems.”

The system will allow Nintendo Switch users to set out a course in the real world, using the game’s physical Gate markers. They can then ‘remotely control’ their physical Mario Kart around the course. Each Kart features its own camera that will translate the course setting and physical surroundings onto the player’s screen – either their Switch screen or connected TV – where the Mario Kart experience will be made complete with the addition of the high-octane action and in-game brawling.

Velan Studios is building on the legacy of its founders Karthik and Guha Bala and their core team, renowned for their innovations in fusing toys with interactive game experiences.

“Our mission at Velan is to create breakthrough games that are magic,” said Karthik Bala, CEO, Velan Studios. “We invented the initial mixed reality hardware and game prototype to really nail the exhilaration of racing in the real world with the play and feel of a video game.

“We showed the experience to Nintendo and were thrilled they saw its potential. That started a wonderful multi-year creative collaboration, which became Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit. We can’t wait to see the creative ways fans play when they race around their own creations as Mario and Luigi.”

To learn more about Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit, visit https://www.nintendo.com/. The game will be released by Nintendo worldwide on October 16, 2020.