Mobile Gaming's Big Brand Retreat: Mario Kart Tour Shuts Down in September

The slow retreat from big-brand mobile gaming is accelerating. Nintendo has officially confirmed that Mario Kart Tour — its free-to-play mobile racer that launched back in 2019 — will end its online service this September 2026. The news arrives alongside the announced shutdown of Square Enix's Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis, painting a bleak picture for the once-booming genre of premium IP mobile adaptations. Nintendo has softened the blow slightly by granting all players access to Gold Pass benefits before the lights go out for good.

This twin closure is part of a broader, industry-wide trend. As Eurogamer notes, Mario Kart Tour and FF7 Ever Crisis join Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile and several Sony mobile ventures on a growing list of high-profile retreats from the mobile space. The era of betting that beloved console franchises could be sustainably monetized on smartphones appears to be waning, with publishers increasingly pulling the plug on live-service mobile titles that fail to justify their ongoing operational costs. Adding a bittersweet final chapter to the FF7 Ever Crisis story, Square Enix is also weaving a three-chapter Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII narrative into the game before it goes offline — giving long-time fans one last piece of story content to experience before the servers close.