There is a surprising omission in the credits of Mario Kart World, with legendary game developer Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of Mario, The Legend of Zelda, and several other of the most notable Nintendo franchises, completely absent. Miyamato briefly served as co-president of Nintendo after the death of Satoru Iwat in 2015, and was appointed "Creative Fellow" afterward, and still serves the company in that role. Despite being one of the creators of the Mario Kart series, it doesn't appear he had anything to do with World now.

According to the in-game credits, and noted by Stealth in a post to X, Miyamoto is not mentioned in the game's credits at all. Miyamoto was most recently credited in the Mario Kart series for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. His name was missing from Mario Kart Tour and Home Circuit as well, so while not unprecedented, it seems a little odd not to give even a special thanks to the creator of the massively popular franchise.

Shigeru Miyamoto Is Missing From The Credits Of Mario Kart World

It Seems Mario Kart Has Moved On

Miyamoto has a total of 414 credits across 327 games, according to the data from MobyGames. His most recent credit was as a senior supervisor for Mario & Luigi: Brothership in 2024. Miyamoto has been credited for several Nintendo games, even if his role was as a small supervisor or advisor on the various projects, so his absence from Mario Kart World, the major first-party launch title of the Nintendo Switch 2, is a bit surprising.

Mario Kart World has a huge roster, an interconnected world, dozens of tracks, the new Knockout Tour mode, and generally, a lot of content. The game has been a big hit for Nintendo Switch 2 and Mario Kart fans, but some of the inner workings of the project have been mysterious. Previously, Samantha Kelly, who voiced Princess Peach for almost two decades, revealed she was not in Mario Kart World, and did not know she was recast until the game was released. So, the exact reason for leaving Miyamoto out of the credits could be complicated, but that's speculation.

Our Take: Apparently, Miyamoto Hasn't Worked On An MK Game In A While

Even Though He Was Credited For Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

Miyamoto hasn't directly worked on Mario Kart and several other Nintendo games for a while, allegedly. His role at Nintendo seems to have turned more towards a supervisor and consultant position, for the actual creation of Nintendo's games, which is to be expected given his current job title and his previous interim tenure as the company's president. If he didn't work on Mario Kart World at all, then his absence in the credits shouldn't be too alarming, but since he's been credited for so many other games, it's still a little surprising.

Mario Kart World introduced a free-roam mode and took the series in a bold new direction. It would be astounding if Miyamoto wasn't consulted at least a little for the big project, but Nintendo could be changing the way it handles credits for its games moving forward. Either way, it didn't take long for fans to notice his absence in Mario Kart World's credits, so it remains to be seen if he'll be credited for future Nintendo projects.

Source: Stealth/X, MobyGames