I know what the rumors are saying, and no, Nintendo is NOT removing all female drivers from Mario Kart games. That bit of “news” is a 100%, genuine prank. Here’s the low-down:
The Fakest Nintendo News Ever
On May 19, 2022; Hard Drive reported that Nintendo is removing all female characters from Mario Kart 8. The reason for this apparent removal was stated as Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund’s recent purchase of 5.01% of Nintendo’s stocks (as reported by IGN), making them currently the 5th largest shareholder at Nintendo. I’m here to tell you that only half of that news is real, and it’s certainly not the former.
To be honest, I was just as confused as most of you by that bit of news from Hard Drive. I had never heard of the site before until today. That’s what made me suspicious of it in the first place. There was also no link to the “official” announcement by Nintendo, which you’d think would be there for news of this magnitude. If you then scroll to the bottom of the article, it mentions the cancellation of Metroid 4 completely out of nowhere with, again, no accompanying link to the original article to explain in greater detail. Finally, if you scroll even further down to the comments section, numerous commenters reveal the truth: the whole “news article” was just a prank by the website. As befitting a satire website.
Hard Drive: When a Prank Goes Horribly Wrong (Or Possibly Right?)
Yes, you heard me right. Hard Drive is a satire website that regularly publishes fake news for entertainment. The website specializes in video game satire news, which explains why we have that little bit of fake news about Nintendo above. The fact that Hard Drive is a branch of The Hard Times, which itself is another satire website, is another clue about their true nature.
It just goes to show you: always do your research when you read about something sensational on the internet. Still, you can at least give Hard Drive credit for making a bit more than semi-realistic fake news story. Especially by including that real bit of news about Saudi Arabia buying 5% of Nintendo’s stocks into it, combined with the historic detail of Saudi Arabia making it illegal for women to drive (which Saudi Arabia amazingly repealed back in 2019, making it now legal for Saudi women to drive). The best lies have a kernel of truth in it, after all.
Source: Hard Drive, IGN
