Nexon announced a few weeks ago on July 31st that their cross-platform PC, console, and mobile title, KartRider: Drift, would be undergoing some major changes in order “to refocus on the PC platform for Korea and Taiwan”. Just yesterday on August 13th the publisher posted again with more substantial details on how the peculiar separation/shutdown/relaunch of the game will play out.
We plan to proceed with the service separation later this month that will allow us to continue to provide a stable service in the best way we can. Korea and Taiwan’s PC platforms will be separated from the current service, and going forward will be managed separately. Separate from Korea and Taiwan’s PC Platform service, the Console, Mobile, and Global services will stay within a single service. These two services will be available for all players depending on their platform and location.
This upcoming August update is currently planned to be the final one for Console, Mobile, and Global players. This separated service will remain live until early next year, and you can continue to play until that time. We will follow up with a separate announcement with more details in the near future.
KartRider: Drift Announcement – August 13, 2024
Both the initial and updated announcements provide more insight from game director Jaeyun Cho but no more concrete details on when the game will be shut down beyond “early next year [2025]”. For now the free-to-play kart racer remains available on PlayStation, Xbox, Android, iOS, and on PC on Steam or direct from Nexon. Until there’s another update I’ve put mid-January on the Watch List calendar. Thanks to HandMaskTar for pointing out the news.