Could A Secret Code Hidden In Splatoon 3's Trailer Reveal The Game's Release Date?

I kind of doubt it means anything. I'm pretty sure Splatoon has used QR codes in the past just as decoration.

EDIT: Also August 18th seems wayyyy too late. I was expecting this to be their main summer game.

get mat pat on the horn

There’s already fire emblem warriors and Mario strikers in June splatoon will be in July/august I feel

I honestly couldn't care less about release date if was pretty obvious from the start.

9 june 2022... Sort of.

Someone has too much time on their hands…

Not sure why this gets a sequel but other IP's stay dormant and ignored..

I was shocked yesterday to see the June release date for Strikers b/c I was really expecting that for Splatoon 3 and Strikers was leaning heavy on online support with play and 20 member clubs. So I do think they'll give Strikers a couple of months to build up an online player base before Splatoon 3, which is probably now in August b/c of Strikers.

@Guitario Really. 8 year old MK8 gets 48 DLC levels but 3 yr old Splatoon2 needs a full sequel? That is kind of odd. Why not wait until Switch 2 for Splatoon 3? And where's Pikmn 4?

Nintendo Logic, it's a thing, and only they get it.

I'm expecting a summer release, but with Mario Strikers happening in June, I imagine it would be in July or August. Unless... they surprise us with a May release like the original Splatoon back on the Wii U?

@Guitario @rjejr Because Splatoon is way more popular, and therefore more profitable, than Pikmin and other dormant IPs.

Don't get me wrong I would love a new Pikmin and goodness knows how much I want a new F-Zero, Ever Oasis or Sin & Punishment. But you can't blame them for focussing on what's popular and will make them money, that is after all how they remain in existence.

I think 'mon' means man, but I don't think 'och' means anything.

Doctor Sanchez

L is Real 2401

@Guitario because Splatoon is successful

June having Splatoon 3 and Mario Strikers would just be wild.

I tried making a clean QR out of this but the proportions are just wrong, it's aesthetic

@StarPoint August is summer.

@getyourak Well I know that. It just seems pretty late in summer

The game will be out in the next 6 months, i can wait patiently for a little longer

June seems to soon...
August seems more likely or late July perhaps for a release date.

Game looked dope but was it just me or the soundtrack was awful?

I really doubt it will be released in June, since that's when Mario Strikers arrives..

I'm going to guess that it will be released on the 21st July on the 5th anniversary of Splatoon 2, which also happens to be a Friday.

@rjejr Splatoon 2 will be five years old in May, not three.

I wish they would give us more information it ended before it started in the direct yesterday as far as I am concerned. I was left with many..sad..salty tears. Bayonetta is vaporware ..is there rea a game in development 😳😳😳

The last Friday in July.

@rjejr The switch already has a Mario Kart game. What part of Nintendo's history makes you expect to ever get a second Mario Kart game on it? There's no reason for it either, it's still selling well, 48 new tracks should put the nail in the coffin of any Mario kart 9 appearing in the switch.

Splatoon 2 however, it's 5 years old, it's far from perfect, they're still finding their feet with the franchise, it's no longer selling well and shooters generally get multiple games on one console.

How could anyone even see that QR code? I have my phone on full brightness while looking at the zoomed in screenshot and I can barely see anything.

Some fans are so desperate for hidden info in trailers that's it's kind of scary.

EDIT: My phone was just being glitchy. I see it now. But still, how did anyone even see that? Nintendo isn't hiding some ARG.

I mean it's pretty obvious this is just a in-game QR equivalent, given it's bundled with a bunch of other in-game logos.

This trailer seemed really odd to me, but it got me thinking about the original life-cycle breakdown for Splatoon that listed 2 paid DLC in the works. Could this be the second, unreleased DLC moved to Splatoon 3?

And with that in mind, Nintendo seems to be pretty big on this idea of "we are going to released this game on this date, but these feathers and stages will come later". Will we see a "staggered" release for Splatoon 3 with the online modes coming before the single player?

Could be.

Just wait for the Splatoon 3 Direct likely in May

Splatoon 2 launched 21 July so I imagine around the same date.
It’s gonna be a busy summer what with MHRS which I think will have an august release.

@StarPoint Yeah, I always thought it would come out in June, July.

Even before they announced the Summer 2022 date, I think we all knew it would be a mid-year release as the last instalments have been as well.

Hard to believe it’s been around a year since the announcement.

@Dingelhopper

"The Portal ARG, or Alternate Reality Game, was introduced as an easter egg in the March 1 Patch. The notes released along with the patch read "Changed radio transmission frequency to comply with federal and state spectrum management regulations", and accompanying this was a new achievement, "Transmission Received".

In order to acquire the achievement, players were required to collect a Radio in each test chamber, and carry it to a specific location. The red light on the radio would change to green when the correct location was reached, after which the default music would change to a series of beeps, similar to Morse Code. If a player carried the radio through a Material Emancipation Grill, a different sound would play. It was later discovered these sounds, stored in 26 separate WAV files, contained hidden images that could only be accessed by using Slow-scan television software.

In addition to images, the WAV files also contained brief messages in Morse Code, as well as a phone number and a username/password combination. It was eventually discovered that dialling the number using an analogue modem lead to a GLaDOS-themed BBS which, when accessed using the aforementioned username and password, revealed more images and other data that hinted that Portal 2 was forthcoming."

So ... pictures hidden in files you could only see using specialised software told us about the plot, while we got details about the release by using 20 year old tech to call a phone number that we worked out from Morse Code. Not noted here is that there were several encrypted massages on that board and after the community figured out the decryption (with help from NASA), it gave instructions as to how we could let Doug Rattmann know we got his message, which lead to him tweeting a count-down.

At the end of the count-down, the release date for Portal 2 was given for the first time.

So ... ummm ... I'm going to go ahead and say it's not really desperation as much as companies pull stuff like this.

@Stroopwafel This was the last place I thought I'd see a Dark Place reference. Really made my day!

@HeadPirate That's pretty cool and all and I know companies have done this sort of thing before, but c'mon.....this is Nintendo we're talking about here. I don't think they'd ever pull a cool marketing stunt like Valve would.

I appreciate when companies do this sort of thing, but it never happens with Nintendo. I think all the Smash Ultimate conspiracy theories that never came true dashed any sort of fantasy that Nintendo would hide details in trailers. Fans clamoring for details in Sakurai Presents videos unironically like: "OMG THE CHAIR IS PURPLE. WALUIGI CONFIRMED", really seemed like a complete and total waste of time. If people want to do this sort of stuff, then so be it. I'm not against people having fun in that sort of way. But I still think it's a total waste of time when it comes to Nintendo.

Yeah, August 18th is too late. Summer is coming to a close at that point. Splatoon 1 came out May 28th and Splatoon 2 came out July 21st. So June seems pretty likely for 3.

@rjejr Uhm, actually, Splatoon 2 is 4 and a half years old now and will be 5 years old by the time 3 releases this Summer. BTW, 2 came out only 2 years after the 1st game..

@Dingelhopper

Nintendo does viral marketing in Japan all the time. I've been to events in Toronto Canada as well they have teased hidden info.

In fact, years before Splatoon 1 was released, they had Callie and Marie individually going around singing at malls and small prefectures celebrations with zero branding, zero tie into being mascot for Nintendo (and before you ask ... yeah, random performances by costume idols and mascots are pretty common). There was an event you can read about in the art book where Nintendo staged a "talent show" where the two meet each other, figured out they were cousins, and formed the "Squid Sisters". They went on to have a flash-mob dance party in the street where they taught people a dance for and the words (In Inkling) to "Bomb Rush Blush". The marketing material from that was the first public showing of Inklings and Inkopolis.

Outside the second "Squid Sisters" live concert a radio played the remixed ""Spicy Calamari Inkantation" follow by voice clues hinting to the Splatoon 2 reveal.

The first time "Off the hook" preformed live (where they opened for the "Squid Sisters") there was a very limited hand out of a SD card with 8 music tracks which were all listed as "MP8" which included "#$@%* Dudes Be #$@%* Sleepin", hints to the Octo expansion.

There was apparently a lot of secret info in the music in trailers and the TV spots in Japan if you're Japanese is way better then mine and you know a lot about music. You can find threads on reddit about it.

So yeah, fans are going to look for stuff like this in every trailer or information drop, and they are going to be wrong 90% of the time. But it's fun to look, and there is more then enough evidence from the past to point to the possibly that Nintendo would do it again.

Lol my birthday is August 18, would have been a great release date!

@Guitario to be fair, this is a pretty big IP, and gained a lot of positive feedback