{"id":48587,"date":"2025-06-03T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T15:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=48587"},"modified":"2025-06-02T15:14:25","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T06:14:25","slug":"nintendo-submits-patent-seemingly-related-to-mario-kart-world-race-course-generation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nintendo-submits-patent-seemingly-related-to-mario-kart-world-race-course-generation\/","title":{"rendered":"Nintendo submits patent seemingly related to Mario Kart World race course generation\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A patent application made by Nintendo in July last year was made public on May 29, 2025. As several Japanese Nintendo fans have pointed out<\/a>, the patent application (JP2025-82801<\/a>) appears to describe technology related to the upcoming Mario Kart World<\/strong>. At the time of writing, the status of the application suggests that Nintendo has not yet officially requested for it to be examined by Japan\u2019s Patent Office.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike previous games in the series, Mario Kart World adopts an open-world format that lets you drive virtually anywhere. Race courses are no longer separated, but scattered across an interconnected map that players can navigate freely. In addition, the game\u2019s new Free Roam mode lets you casually explore these in-between zones and clear small missions. The publication of Nintendo\u2019s new patent application has already caused some disgruntled reactions about how \u201cNintendo is trying to patent open-world racing games\u201d like Forza Horizon, but the scope of the patent is, naturally, nowhere near that wide. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Mario<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What is it about then? Patent JP2025-82801 appears to describe a game system that \u201csets up\u201d (more on this word choice later) varied race courses within the game field. It does so by using three components present on the game map: \u201czones,\u201d \u201cconnecting routes (routes that connect the different zones)\u201d and \u201cinternal routes (smaller routes within a single zone).\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When a race is initiated, the system determines the type of race and sets up a race course by combining these course components. For example, a course in which racers move from one zone to another, or a circuit-style course where racers loop through the \u201cinternal routes\u201d of a zone a set number of times. Or alternatively, a hybrid course where the former transitions into the latter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Mario<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In other words, patent JP2025-82801 seems to describe a racing game mechanic that dynamically generates courses at the time the race is about to begin, depending on the type of race. It\u2019s important to mention though, that terms like \u201cautomatic\u201d or \u201cgeneration\u201d don\u2019t explicitly appear anywhere in the patent\u2019s overview (instead, it\u2019s described as courses being \u201cset up\u201d). However, the language strongly implies that it\u2019s about system-controlled configuration, as opposed to manual configuration by a game dev or player. Plus, since the type of race determines what kind of course gets created, this implies that the system uses some kind of conditional logic to select and combine the right course components. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Nintendo<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Although we don\u2019t know yet whether and to which extent this technology is actually used in Mario Kart World, the details of the patent do set it apart from other open-world racing games like Forza Horizon, as it doesn\u2019t describe a pre-designed open-world where the player chooses where to drive, but rather courses that are created within the game field on the fly. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A recently published patent application by Nintendo reveals a race course generation system that brings to mind Mario Kart World’s map design.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":48600,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-48587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nNintendo submits patent seemingly related to Mario Kart World race course generation\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A recently published patent application by Nintendo reveals a race course generation system that brings to mind Mario Kart World's map design.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nintendo-submits-patent-seemingly-related-to-mario-kart-world-race-course-generation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nintendo submits patent seemingly related to Mario Kart World race course generation\u00a0 - 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