For the Mario Kart World producer, adding characters from other games wasn't necessary
With Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Nintendo added characters from other licenses. Link from The Legend of Zelda, Isabelle from Animal Crossing and Inkling from Splatoon were all added to the Switch title.
But the latest entry focused solely on the Mario universe. Mario Kart World does not include drivers from other Nintendo franchises. In an interview with Ouest-France, Kosuke Yabuki, the title’s producer, said he had "absolutely no" intention of adding a character from ARMS, a game he also produced in 2017 for the Switch.
Yabuki went a step further, referring to this lack of crossover in Mario Kart World.
"As developers, it would have seemed incongruous to us to add characters from other games into this universe. And it didn’t seem necessary, given everything we could already do with Mario."
"We’re bound to wonder how players will perceive this cast. But there are so many characters and so many costumes that there’s sure to be something for everyone."
