From SDR to 'Fake HDR': Mario Kart World on Switch 2

Summary

Nintendo’s Switch 2 launched on June 5th 2025 with Mario Kart World headlining the platform and on paper showcasing its new 4K60 + HDR output pipeline. That promise lands in a market where HDR is the consumer standard: analysts value the global HDR TV segment at ≈ US $150B in 2024 and project US $250 B by 2033. Consumer TVs with HDR functionality started shipping in 2015, and seeing that most consumers replace their TV every 6.4 years this means a high percentage console owners in 2025 now game on HDR capable screens. Yet, as I’ll show in this article, Mario Kart World surfaces an industry-wide problem: SDR-first authoring with a last-minute tonemap hack ruins the experience. I’d figure that SDR games that masquerade as HDR, or “fake HDR” coined by some more incendiary YouTubers, would have been a trend left back in 2020, but here we are in 2025 with a new generation of consoles with a headliner game that still reduces color gamut to SDR, and has no more dynamic range than the SDR presentation. In this article I’ll show my evidence of why I think this game is a “fake HDR” title, and what developers can do to avoid this in the future. I approach this critique with some experience. I led Dolby Vision for Games program on Xbox Series X|S, helping developers ship Dolby Vision masters on Godfall, Halo Infinite, and COD Warzone, and I’m consulting on more titles still under NDA. Those projects taught me that HDR excellence starts at the very first art review—not in the final weeks of polish. Test Methodology Here is my capture chain that I’m gathering this information with. If you think I’m doing something wrong I’d love to know. Hardware & capture path Launch Model Nintendo Switch 2 over HDMI on the official dock to –> Blackmagic DeckLink 4K mini. Captured in BlackMagic Media Express (3.8.1) in ProRes 4444 on Mac OS (15.1) Mac Studio M1 Ultra Viewed on Asus ProArt PA27UCX mastering monitor (2,000 nits, Rec.2020 PQ, hardware calibrated) Davinci Resolve to analyze captures...