Nexon's KartRider: Drift to be available from March 9

Nexon will start offering its KartRider: Drift online racing game on consoles on March 9 in tandem with the launch of the game's global regular season. Developed by Nitro Studio and published by Nexon, KartRider: Drift is a casual racing game and...

Nexon's KartRider: Drift will launch on March 9 [NEXON]

Nexon will start offering its KartRider: Drift online racing game on consoles on March 9 in tandem with the launch of the game's global regular season.

Developed by Nitro Studio and published by Nexon, KartRider: Drift is a casual racing game and a sequel to Nexon’s Crazyracing KartRider PC game first released in 2004.

The pre-season release on Jan. 12 was opened to PC, Apple iOS and Android platforms, while the regular season launching in March will be open to Xbox One and PlayStation 4 console platforms for the first time in the franchise’s history. This also enables full cross-play across all platforms, which means that users will be able to play together regardless of the platform they are using.

While the pre-season came with most core game features, including the single-player license mode where users can test their skills, the regular season will introduce more features, such as additional game maps, game customization features and a Gran Prix mode.

The regular season will also introduce the e-sport pro league for the game, a popular feature in CrazyRacing Kartrider.

Game director Jo Jae-yoon also teased on Wednesday that the game will have multiple collaborations with other well-known brands, starting with two collaborations in Season 1 of the game.

KartRider: Drift was developed from the ground up, providing a brand new experience for existing and new players while continuing to expand on the iconic themes and characters from the 2004 game. The game will support 4K UHD high-definition graphics and HDR and Dolby Atmos sound settings, making it the first Korean game to support Dolby Atmos.

Nexon also emphasized that it guarantees players the fairest playing ground possible, minimizing the need to pay to get ahead.

While it has been announced that Crazyracing KartRider will shut down its servers in March after the full release of the sequel, no further details were announced.

BY CHO YONG-JUN [cho.yongjun1@joongang.co.kr]