Splatoon 3 Gets September Release And Extended New Footage

Splatoon 2... 2. Yay.

It seems like Nintendo decided in light of Breath of the Wild 2's development, not only did they move Xenoblade Chronicles 3's release ahead of schedule to give Monolith Soft more time for the former, but they also effectively SWAPPED the release dates with Splatoon 3. September barely qualifies as summer.

We will watch your career with great interest.

Would be nice if we could also get the complete physical edition of Splatoon 2 that Japan got (which is sadly Japanese only, unlike Breath of the Wild, which supports English).

That was fast lol. video is 13 minutes old

Sep 9th is still "Summer", but we all saw this coming after the Xenoblade 3 news.

Oh wow, that's quite a bit later than I was expecting! Those specials and subs look absolutely insane, though. Fantastic music and I'm glad they're bringing back the 1-minute warning song from the first game. The map design is really cool as well.

I know September 9th is still technically summer but this is a let down for me. Guess I'll go outside more.

It looks bloomin' glorious!

Ahh, september, darn. I wanted it sooner. Still glad it's coming.

so it got delayed and Xenoblade 3 was put in it's place. I'd say that's more than a fair trade-off.

Well this is a good thing to wake up to.

As suspected, Xenoblade 3 and Splatoon 3 essentially swapped release dates.

The new specials are looking pretty cool here. Interested to seeing what the single-player campaign looks like.

More more more, gimme more Nintendo.

@westman98 Can you ask them to swap it back please?

I like what I'm seeing. Bit bummed it won't come until September. I was hoping for June. Xenoblade will probably keep me busy until then.

Hmmm. I’m still struggling to see anything to justify this being a sequel and not an expansion of #2.

Yes, new levels, and yes, new weapons. But mechanically, what’s stopping them from being DLC to the existing game?

That grappling line move looks very cool, but that’s just the 1 weapon, right? Would be so much more interesting if that was a standard new feature for everyone. It’s a game-changer, but it’s been limited in scope. Same with the ball-tank - don’t make it a preset weapon, make it a feature of certain levels or modes that players will fight for control of.

I had similar misgivings about Spla2n adding the dodge roll but only for the dual guns. But at least that added Salmon Run (and eventually Octolings).

I just feel like the original was a charming and quirky explosion of inventive ideas, but the sequels are relatively minor iterations that don’t have the same level of unique identity.

Also I massively miss the mini-games in the waiting room.

@Fizza Watching this was fun. That hoover definitely looks like it blocks/sucks in enemy ink and then shoots it back.
That "flashlight" you saw is a actually a marker I think that is used like a kunai.
I love that they brough back the ink strike but you use it by marking three spots with three little marking bombs.
Also, I love the after battle rewards and titles you can use.
They continue to make this series better each time, especially with the small things.

@dew12333
ok, I'm calling my uncle who works at Nintendo as we speak

You would hope Nintendo will have a fantastic single player offline campaign to this, otherwise I don’t really see the point of moving on from Splatoon 2.

That footage could be from the first game.

Splatoon 1 was good but got old quick and years later there is a second sequel that looks the exact same. Not much to get excited about for me but fair play to those who enjoy it.

Who needs E3 when Nintendo is dropping bombs left and right out of nowhere.

@MrGawain yeah I've been thINKing (sorry) that, from what I've seen so far, it doesn't seem different enough to drop Splatoon 2 and spend £50

I thought this was supposed to be on the Switch “Pro”? I shall check out the trailer when I get home…

Not a good trailer to differentiate 3 from 2 for anyone other than the Splatoon fan base. That stage/arena looks so similar to one in 2 to me.

so, 3rd Squid Research Direct in July?

I will buy it because I love the Splatoon worlds and Inklings, even though I am really bad at it online! I would LOVE to see some co-op 2 player so I can play at home without getting bashed up online

Looks like a decent, fast-paced shooter.

Halo Infinite spiked last year because people are bored of the relatively ploddy pace of battle royale games and wanted something more akin to a skill-based shooter.

Here's hoping that Splatoon 3 proves to be another shot in the arm for arena shooters.

I can’t say I’m THAT excited because I no longer have 450+ hours to sink in a game as I did in Splatoon 2

Adding octo expansion to NSO is huge. I’m excited for that and what it means for the future (could we get free BOTW DLC before the release of BOTW2?)

@silverninja
Splatoon 2 got its own Direct about 2 weeks prior to launch. I suspect we'll get a Splatoon 3 Direct sometime in August.

Looks like splatoon 2 got a new map and few new upgrades.... Still waiting to see how this is a new game.

@ModdedInkling

I was thinking the same thing regarding Xenoblade 3 and Splatoon 3 swapping release dates. Splatoon sells a lot more than Xenoblade, so they probably wanted it as part of their fall lineup now that they no longer have Zelda this year.

@LikwidYoshi
You could say the same sentence using “Splatoon 1”, yet it didn’t kept 2 from being a superb game.
Shooters often suffer for this kind of (legitimate) comparison.

Nice, I hope the single player mode is good, I hope the adventure is more like a world rather than a level.

They swapped xc3 with splatoon 3 because xc was ready to launch and splatoon 3 surely needed more polish it’s an online shooter .

This looks great and I like a lot of the new power-ups and weapons. I’m really hoping the single-player mode ends up being really robust like the Octo-Expansion from 2. Also please let players que up together and be on the same team, as well as remove the stage rotation. That killed a lot of the replay value from the previous games for me and my brother.

I really love the ui changes for before and after the matches. Really excited for the spider man squid power up

@Clark2k

The key difference being that Splatoon 2 released on a console people actually owned.

With that now done,
I'm struggling to see the point of this latest entry.

@Clark2k
It's extremely difficult for multiplayer games, especially multiplayer shooters, to truly innovate (beyond the expected addition of new weapons, maps, special abilities, cosmetics, QoL refinements, etc) without being too different and angering the community.

This is especially the case with Splatoon, where the first game was such a new and unique experience that any sequel which didn't fundamentally alter everything from the original would look too iterative by comparison.

Please please please, let the multiplayer lobby system be improved so that we can team up with friends easier!

This is a skip for me. Loved Splatoon 1. Splatoon 2 was neat, but seemed like a version 1.5 to me. And this? It's doing absolutely nothing to make me want to dive back in.

I've still got the Octo Expansion to work on, anyway which remains some of the most interesting Splatoon content I've seen since the original

The initial reveal of Splatoon 3 had me excited for a more meaty campaign mode. 90% of the marketing since then though is focused on multiplayer, so the game is definitely completely multiplayer focused again.

I played the first Splatoon a decent amount, it is a fun game, but not something that can hold me for long. I don't see much of a difference between 2 and 3 compared to 1. They feel like going from COD MW to MW2, which is fine for the people that really enjoy these games, just not enough for me to give it another shot.

@AndyC_MK111
If there is a new mode, Nintendo will probably announce it at a Splatoon 3-specific Direct where they can explain how said new mode works. This trailer seems to just show off raw gameplay footage for Turf Wars, which is nice to see in an era where everyone loves to use heavily-edited flashy trailers.

"And if Nintendo were really struggling THAT much for new ideas/content - why release a full out sequel?"
Because there are enough changes and refinements to justify a sequel as opposed to just updating Splatoon 2, even if said changes and refinements aren't mind-blowing.

Strange move from Nintendo.

It could be a new DLC. But no...Nintendo will split the NSO community around Splatoon 2 / Splatoon 3.

Nintendo does not have a integrated community like Xbox, Playstation and Steam......so...find partners to play is more difficult on Nintendo Switch.

It really could be another Splatoon 2 DLC......

This franchise needs split screen and SINGLE BATTLES AGAINST BOTS (all modes) so badly.

I won´t buy Splatoon 3.

5 years since Splatoon 2 and all we get are some new weapons and arenas.

However, day 1 purchase.

Easy skip for me. That trailer just shows more of the same.

That mix of "now or never" seems to really highlight the level to which chaos and Pearl's win is going to influence the music. It's barely the same aside from the unmistakable lydian mode that repeats twice. The use of scale and rhythm at the end sounds a lot like "Dudes Be #$@%* Sleepin".

If you asked me what song I would NOT expect to ever be referenced again ... I would have told you that one.

I almost feel like the music is deliberately muted, given just how much of the story is told though the music.

Nice to have a release date, but it honestly seems even more iterative than Splatoon 2 was, despite the MUCH longer turnaround time between the second and third games.

Hopefully they're planning new modes that they haven't revealed yet. If I want to play turf wars and salmon run, I can just boot up the copy of Splatoon 2 I already own.

OMG, reading the comments I just realized one way this franchise is going to be super important to the Nintendo fandom moving forward. In fact, Nintendo and Nintendo sites may have just saved themselves from losing millions in posts and engagement!

With Pokémon going in a bold new direction that has gotten almost universal praise, the "this game is awful because it's the same as the last one but would ALSO be awful if it was any different then the last one" crowd were lost! They had nothing to say anymore, no reason to follow the news or engage with the greater fandom!

Splatoon to the rescue! I'm so glad you all have found a new home and a new purpose in life, and I look forward to years of hearing about how every minor change to the formula is a betrayal to the "true fans" while any part of the formula NOT changed is lazy Nintendo just releasing the same thing. I missed it so much!

Honestly quite disappointed that it's so similar to Splatoon 2, which itself was also similar to Splatoon 1. Three games in and so many assets are being reused. Here's hoping the story campaign can live up to Octo Expansion to remedy it.

@HeadPirate
Going to predict a lot of "Splatoon 7 looks like Splatoon 6.5" comments when it is announced for the Switch 3.

@LikwidYoshi @AndyC_MK111 @westman98

A lot of this is going to come down to how minor changes to a 3rd or 1st person shooter end up drastically changing game play, and the amount of time and work that needs to go into balance. It takes a really strong understanding of high level play to really see that, in the same way it's really hard for someone who isn't following competitive play to look at changes to DOTA or LOL and understand the impact they are going to have. I mean, there is a reason the most followed esport shooter is 21 years old.

If you watch closely, you'll see the trailer focuses on new long range options to allow for a more traditional sniper role, but then shows new AOE weapons and transversal powers that can be used to rush or push out anyone "camping".

The map is basic, but 4 "nests" on each side are clearly visible while the centre approach is much wider. This should end the dominance of brushes and short range weapons on the attack and allow for SMG and shotgun styles to be much more viable.

All in all, to the trained eye this is a completely redefined game, moving heavily towards the "3 lane highway" style of games like COD and away from the "Shotgun and Sniper" gameplay of games like Halo, which revolve around the longest and shortest ranged weapons as the most powerful.

For a lot of people, I understand why this isn't going to look like much. If you just like to run up mid and spray and pray (a completely valid and extremely enjoyable way to play) there isn't going to be a lot of "new" here, at least not anything that obvious from this trailer. I kinda put that up to Nintendo Japan focus; Splatoon is a HUGE esport in Japan, heck it's one of the only espots with a following there, so your "average user" is going to get more out of this then your "average user" in the West.

Will preorder, and go nuts again. Love me some Splatoon.

Splatoon is nutZ with a capital Z (that’s why I wrote the Z as a big Z and not a small z [because it’s nutZ])

Splatoon 3 needs:

option to turn specials off

black outline on characters

specials set to anything other than right stick

death matches

vs cpu an option

map on screen

sound for when special is charged

less customisation;
choose a weapon and garments, more than that is too convoluted.

@Fizza ah ok, that’s interesting, cheers

I 1000%'d Octo Canyon about an hour ago(as of the time I posted this comment). What perfect timing for the release date.

If the co-op mode was true local multiplayer I would be all over this.

I love the cover art, name plates, and ink rails in multiplayer. September 9th can't come soon enough.

Is this game going to have a decent sized single player mode? I've never been interested in the multiplayer aspect of Splatoon, but I really like the characters and world.

Also, are there no new hosts in this game? Callie and Marie, then Pearl and Marina, but no new ones for 3? They haven't even shown if Pearl and Marina are even in 3 to begin with.

Just realized that the launch date of September 9 coincides with the Dreamcast's famous US launch date of 9/9/99.

It's just a coincidence, but Splatoon has always felt a bit like a modern Dreamcast game with its art style and music. The game has some definite Jet Set Radio vibes to it.

Hey remember how the first trailer (after the reveal) we got was named after the single player campaign and highlighted what looked like almost an open world experience building on the single player in the last one?

Then the NEXT trailer we got was highlighting the co-op?

And now OCTO is part of NSO, which will let people who weren't interested try out a completely single player focused add-on.

Maybe turf war just isn't the focus, and the bulk of the time was spent on single player and co-op. I mean there are a ton of competitive shooters but not a lot that offer single player and co-op that's not just playing the core experience together. It's also not like turf war needed a lot of work.

Looks great. Nintendo coming out with the bangers left and right.

I really hope we get online saves so that I can play with my account from any switch. The save system of Splatoon 2 is bs.

@Dingelhopper

I posted just above this all the clues to a single player focus.

We've seen Callie and Marie in the trailers, but what's odd that Marie is dressed as Agent 2 while Callie has on her idol outfit. This fits the narrative; after winning the final fest, Marie turns away from music and was more of a celebrity (which is why she was doing gigs without Callie, allowing her to be kidnapped) and she didn't really go back after rescuing Callie. Callie, on the other hand, was always putting her music first.

With Pearl winning the 2nd final fest, and the fact that Marina was already very subordinate to her music wise (she calls Pearl "senpai" in Japan), I think we might see something similar happen. We only have 1 solo song from Pearl, but it seems to strongly influence the music in the 3's trailers ... and I mean, the dialog when she won the final fest spoke directly to finding a new musical direction for "Off the Hook". My guess is that Peal is going to have a full band now, maybe alongside Callie and Marina (there is like ... a TON of discussion of the musical hints to this on the reddit, if you want to go down that rabbit hole), and we might actually get a presenter who ISN'T also the main musical idol or focus of this game.

Off the Hook was still doing live concerts when the pandemic started, so that brand is valuable and it would be ... odd to see Nintendo actively market 3 sets of idols rather the just consolidate a "face" for the series.

My body is ready.

I loved Splatoon and enjoyed Splatoon 2 but nothing I have seen of 3 has screamed must buy to me so far. Just looks very samey with a few new additions. Could’ve told me the gameplay in that trailer linked here was Splatoon 2 and I wouldn’t have questioned it.

I just feel like there’s so much they could do with a more open single player structure and it doesn’t look like that’s what they’re doing here. Also a lot more they could do with co-op but they’re just doing Salmon Run again (not that the return of the feature is a bad thing since it was a lot of fun, but no big new co-op feature like a co-op story is a missed opportunity). I dunno. Maybe there’s a lot more to it but I haven’t seen anything yet that’s exciting me to be honest- not the usual case for Nintendo sequels for me.

I feel like single player needs to be meaty for this game to sell on a similar level to 2. I’m going to get it, as I never properly got into 2, but there’s got to be some more bones in the single-player content.

@Fizza I'm fairly certain it is the new inkstrike. I was pretty confused when the inkling threw out three little capsules in a row that didn't look like their sub weapon. Then I noticed the pillar of ink hit in the background. Also the special emblem is three missiles, so I'm putting together that that is what it is.

There ya have it.

Summer huh LOL?

But now that its come to that, would it be a good thing for me to get the 2nd game? I thought it was going to come waaay sooner, but if thats not the case is it a bad idea to get it now?

I'm disappointed, this looks just like the other Splatoon games. Why don't they fly around in hovercars and use space lasers to do each others taxes or something. Or how about a turn based hot dog selling game where you have to use fancy LED displays to get more customers than your opponents. The same reason I didn't like the new Mortal Kombat, it's just like the other Mortal Kombat games, but why don't they change it up a bit so it plays more like Peggle. More blood and gore and fighting, come on, we've all played that game already, how about something fresh.

I'm genuinely confused why Nintendo keeps dropping these release date trailers outside of a Nintendo Direct. First, Xenoblade 3, and now Splatoon 3. Stuff like a pre-launch trailer for something with an eminent release like Nintendo Switch Sports makes sense. But, this is kinda weird. Are we gonna get a Mario Strikers Battle League breakdown in the next couple weeks that showcases new features?

Granted--I always lament when a Direct is mostly just filled with trailers about games I was already sold on. That's why I didn't much care for E3 2019, even though most people loved it. The sequel to Breath of the Wild was the only new first-party game announced, and otherwise it was just more info on games we knew about like Luigi's Mansion 3 and Link's Awakening. So if Nintendo is putting these out now to trim the fat from their Directs and focus mostly on new stuff, that's actually an exciting prospect. I shouldn't get my hopes too high, but maybe this means Nintendo has a ton of new games to announce at E3, so they're getting this smaller stuff out of the way now.

@HeadPirate Totally. Comments saying it looks more like Splatoon 2, but I’m looking at it like we’re not in Kansas anymore. So many little changes will undo a lot of muscle memory in Splatoon 2 turf war for me

Mario Kart and Mario Sports games have had big visual upgrades over the decades. Splatoon has existed within a relative graphics infrastructure between Wii U and Switch. So I think that difference gets people feeling the series hasn’t had a true sequel while iterative Mario Games don’t suffer that reputation. In fact a lot of people saying they just wanted more standard golf in the new Mario Golf game, no crazy new modes.. like damn, lol

@MsJubilee ikr lmao

@Not_Soos my theory is that the june direct is going to be so packed with new stuff that they're getting all of this stuff out of the way now

I always thought summer was a great time for Splatoon. September is not really summer to me, but hey, a date is a date. I can’t wait, I love Splatoon.

@nowthisisepic I sure hope so. I didn't watch the Splatoon video until after I made my comment, and I realized it's not really a trailer but just gameplay of a singular match that shows a couple new moves. I think Splatoon 3 is gonna have a very expansive story mode, so they're probably gonna showcase it in an E3 blowout along with the new pop stars for this game. I hope that kind of stuff won't take up too much of their E3 time, though.

As sad as it is, we saw more changes in COD and Battlefield than we saw from Splatoon 2 to 3. Smh 🥴

@Silly_G Japan has content complete Splatoon 2 and BotW right? And BotW works in english?

@RushDawg
I would certainly like to think that Nintendo does have a bit of a backup plan when it comes to Zelda games, but generally yes. Not having a Zelda game release is definitely the main reason.

to be completely frank i don't mind the similarities between this and 2 all that much.as a relatively hardcore fan of the series a completely different hub area, new and incredibly unique weapon type (especially compared to the dualies that were so prevalent in 2's marketing), new spawning system, interesting looking campaign, etc are enough for me. i totally see why this could be disappointing but its far more than DICE did to improve battlefield 2042 over V (especially considering V was...better overall)

@Aurumonado : Yes. BotW is also the same internationally, so, the software will use the same save data too.

@HeadPirate comment of the century!!

@westman98 thanks for nothing!

Not very excited for Splatoon 2.5

I'm hyped for this. Really not understanding people's reactions here. I don't want Splatoon 3 to not play like Splatoon. I'm buying it because it's Splatoon.

@Ralizah The turnaround time from Splatoon 2 is 5 years but the turnaround time from Animal Crossing New Horizons (same division) is about 2.5 years which is on par with that from 1 to 2, with less momentum probably.

@roboshort I'm sure the game was already in development by the time Animal Crossing dropped.

The trailer was interesting, but not as impressive as what it should be. I'm certainly hopeful this will have a lot of new stuff to distinguish itself from its predecessor, but it clearly wasn't shown here.

Maybe a Splatoon Direct would do it! The last one happened the same release month as Splatoon 2 that said.

@Ralizah Yeah. I’m sure it was but it wouldn’t have been in production til after Animal Crossing was finished. But the core members probably had a couple years to do R&D for it. We still don’t know how much new this entry will offer either. I’m pretty sure it’ll offer much more than 2 and 2 offered quite a bit more than 1 counting its DLC.

@JasmineDragon yeah it's strange. Curious if the same logic applied for fitness boxing 2 when they added new trainers, songs and backgrounds but didnt include a basketball mode

I hope they add new modes.
I might not have played much of Splatoon 2 multiplayer (usually just Salmon Run)... So it doesn't look too different from that game but I'm excited to see what's more in store.
A new mode that would be cool to have is a free for all, 8 player mode, especially with how the new spawn points are in the air. Can make having 8 color battle game.
Hopefully more on the way, like capture the flag, infection?, Etc.

Wait for a Splatoon 3 direct, people.