News News Official
A Switch with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for €199.99: Nintendo is bringing back its simplest holiday weapon
With Switch 2 now established on the market, Nintendo is putting its first hybrid machine into a much easier position to understand: €199.99, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe in the box, done. The bundle launches across Europe on October 29, early enough to become an obvious holiday option for households that do not need the newest generation.
By Maëlle 
Nintendo of Europe announced a new Nintendo Switch + Mario Kart 8 Deluxe hardware bundle on September 16.
It launches on October 29, 2026.
French distributor Innelec lists the bundle at €199.99 including tax, while MediaMarkt and Saturn in Germany are also taking pre-orders at €199.99.
That price is therefore already visible across multiple European retail channels, even though Nintendo's own announcement focuses primarily on the bundle contents and release date.
This is not a €200 Switch 2
That distinction is worth making before anybody clicks buy too quickly.
The box contains the standard first-generation Nintendo Switch with a Neon Blue left Joy-Con and Neon Red right Joy-Con.
It is not a Switch OLED, Switch Lite or Switch 2.
Nintendo also lists the Switch dock, two Joy-Con straps, Joy-Con grip, HDMI cable and AC adapter.
This is therefore the full hybrid configuration with TV, tabletop and handheld modes.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe comes on a cartridge
The nicest surprise may not be the choice of game but the format.
Nintendo explicitly confirms a physical copy of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
The cartridge can be lent, resold or moved to another compatible console rather than remaining attached to an account as a digital entitlement.
That is a welcome difference from several previous Nintendo hardware bundles that included software digitally.
The included game hardly needs to be treated as consolation
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe originally launched for Switch in April 2017, but it remains one of the easiest local multiplayer recommendations on the system.
The base game contains 48 courses, the DLC content originally released for Mario Kart 8 on Wii U and a substantially rebuilt Battle Mode.
Up to four players can share one Switch in split screen, while local wireless supports as many as eight systems.
Online races support up to twelve drivers with the appropriate Nintendo Switch Online membership.
The additional 48 Booster Course Pass tracks are not part of the bundle
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and its Booster Course Pass need to be treated separately.
The hardware bundle includes the standard game and its original 48-course selection.
The additional 48 remastered courses from the Booster Course Pass remain separate content.
They can be purchased independently or accessed while subscribed to Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack.
€199.99 is also €350 below the new Switch 2 bundle
The comparison becomes particularly interesting because Nintendo is launching several bundles on the same day.
French distributor Innelec lists Switch + Mario Kart 8 Deluxe at €199.99 and the new Switch 2 + Mario Kart World bundle at €549.99.
That creates a €350 gap.
They obviously serve different purposes. Switch 2 provides newer hardware and Mario Kart World, while this original Switch bundle is largely about opening nearly a decade of existing software at a much lower entry price.
It is even listed below the new Switch Lite + Tomodachi Life bundle
There is another unusual price comparison in the French listings.
The Switch Lite + Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream bundle is listed at €219.99 by Innelec.
That makes the standard Switch with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe twenty euros cheaper while still including the dock and detachable Joy-Con controllers.
Different hardware ages and commercial strategies explain much of that discrepancy.
It still makes the Mario Kart bundle unusually aggressive for someone primarily looking for an inexpensive family console.
Old hardware does not mean a disappearing library
Buying an original Switch at the end of 2026 means accepting hardware first released in 2017, built around a 6.2-inch LCD and technology now substantially behind Switch 2.
What it offers in return is a software library accumulated across almost a decade.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Super Mario Odyssey, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom, Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate all remain playable on this model.
For a household uninterested in future Switch 2 exclusives, the useful question is therefore less “is this Nintendo's best hardware?” and more “does €200 buy access to the catalogue we actually want?”.
On October 29, Nintendo will put two Mario Kart bundles at opposite ends of its market
The contrast is unusually clean.
Switch 2 with Mario Kart World represents the new generation and a substantially higher price.
The original Switch returns with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, a physical cartridge and a price below the symbolic €200 line.
It is not a hardware revolution. It is almost the exact opposite: Nintendo is making the old formula cheap enough that it no longer needs to pretend to be new.