By Sickr on June 17, 2025

We hear virtually everyday that game development costs are spiralling as video games become more advanced thanks to advancements in technology with games becoming bigger and more varied resulting in higher costs to consumers. Japanese video game industry analyst Papen has been comparing staffing number on the recently released Mario Kart World vs previous entries and the development team which worked on Mario Kart World is significantly larger than that of its predecessor, especially in the all-important art department.

"According to Papen, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe had 18 members involved in game design, 72 in programming and 73 in the art department – which is 163 people in total. However, Mario Kart World welcomed a significantly larger number of staff, with the biggest boost in manpower happening in the art sector. With 22 game designers, 86 programmers and 192 artists – Mario Kart World had a whopping 119 more artists on board compared to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Out of the 192 members of the artist department, some were split into two teams – the field design team, with 88 members and the character design team, with 57 members. This breakdown suggests that a big factor for the upsizing was Mario Kart World's vast open-world map."

"Additionally, data suggest that most of the art team members are completely new to the series. In Mario Kart World's field design team, only 6 members had experience working on Mario Kart 8 DX and only 1 had worked on the Booster Course Pass. When it comes to current members of the character design team, only 3 have experience working on 8 DX, and none worked on the Booster Course Pass. It is also important to note that around 80% of staff who worked on 2014's Mario Kart 8 also participated in the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe project."

- Automaton Media