To round out the Splatoon 3 Direct, Nintendo has confirmed that the game will get extensive post-launch updates comprising a consistently refreshing season catalogue, new items, game modes and a 'large-scale paid DLC'.
Let's begin with those updating seasonal catalogues. Nintendo has confirmed that instead of randomly generating new clothing items, Splatoon 3's garments will be refreshed with a fresh new catalogue every three months for the next two years. Yep, two years! Now that's a lot of crazy sandals.
The Direct also confirmed that new weapons would be releasing at a similar time to these catalogues, so those of you who are less fashion-oriented also have new toys and tactics to look forward to.
In addition to these cosmetic post-launch updates, we now also know that Splatoon 3 will come to gain two further game modes: X Battle and League Battle. The former of these appears to be similar in nature to Anarchy Battle and will only be obtainable by achieving an extremely high rank in its predecessor. League Battle on the other hand will see players competing in teams based directly on their Anarchy Battle results — so you better get the grind in on this game mode before the new ones drop in the future.
As far as we know, the above additions will be part of free updates, but Nintendo also confirmed that a paid DLC — presumably along the lines of Splatoon 2's Octo Expansion in terms of scope — will become available at some point after the game's release. We can't be certain of what this will entail just yet, but that mysterious silhouette is giving us big Marina and Pearl vibes.
As for post-launch content, that is all that has been revealed to us for now. However, with the rate that Splatoon 3 will churn out new things for us to do, we wouldn't be surprised if more inky goodies come our way in the coming weeks before the game's 9th September launch.
What update are you the most excited to try? Squid on down to the comments and let us know!
Further reading:
Comments 71
MORE PEARL AND MARINA CONFIRMED BOOYAHHH
hopefully it is included in NSO EP
Interesting to me that League isn't available at launch. Very excited for the DLC though, since it'll feature Pearl and Marina again
Alright, everybody get the annoying "nintendo game not finished on launch!?!?!" Comments out of the way.
Pre battle lobbies. 1 had squid jump. That was great. 2 had nothing apart from messing with the music. I would bet about 10 percent of my total play time was spent just waiting. I love the new system. It's an enormous improvement.
I am extremely disappointed that they couldn't be bothered to come up with any new ranked modes, they just cut+pasted from the previous game and said that'll do
Wow, they are really dragging out the money on this one? First Amiibos to get "exclusive clothes" then paid DLCs?
Glad I'm not in to this game as it sounds like a money sick hole
Dlc? Yay!! What a mess lol
This is the only thing I’m at odds about. Not the dlc, but how there just going to drag out content, which is painfully obvious.
@Slinkoy1 well it’s gonna be dlc 2 years after launch so if it’s anything like octo-expansion I don’t think most people will mind that much
Is there a story mode ? Havent watch the direct yet
Lots and lots of paid DLC works with free-to-play games. Will Splatoon 3 be free to play? Or a $60 + a ton of paid DLC?
What if not many people migrate from Splatoon 2 to Splatoon 3? Will there be a boycott of Splatoon 2? Server malfunctions? Anything to "force" people to migrate to Splatoon 3?
The new 4 versus 2 versus 2 mode is terrible without the ability to communicate via headset with the competitors in the match. Without proper communication for tactics, this mode will be very complicated.
Lots of gimmick, lots of customization, but nothing about offline multiplayer, game modes against BOTS.
And same and have in the future, it will be $60.00 + $$$ + $$$ + $$$
No way. I pass.
Of course, streamers will always play with that smile, often forced, on their face. It's their job to try to excite the players. They make money from it. But honestly, it's really hard for me to get excited about this game. I'm happy for anyone who's excited, but I feel like I'm not missing out on anything. I miss Advance Wars the most.
I won´t pay $60,00 + $(24,90?) to play a 15 hours single player. Sorry
Given that the Octo Expansion in Splatoon 2 was really good and excellent value for money, I'm very okay with this.
2 years of quarterly content updates means Splatoon 3 will be supported until Summer/Fall 2024. Probably means SplatFests will last up to late 2025/early 2026.
The large-scale paid DLC will almost certainly be "Octo-Expansion Part 2". Hopefully it is available on NSO + Expansion Pack at launch.
A new single player campaign dlc like the size of octo would be great!! YES PLEASE. (if that's what they mean)
Typical Nintendo releasing Splatoon 3 unfinished
X Battle sounds like it will be more than just X rank in ranked mode. Ready to see more.
@SonOfASwitch
Yes
PEARL AND MARINA MY BELOVED AAAAAAAAAAH!
Also, there's a pretty high likelihood this gets included in NSO EP considering how Octo Expansion got retroactively added. Makes you wonder what a 'large scale paid DLC' will be all about, huh?
the sheer joy in the announcer lady's voice announcing paid dlc before the game is even out was painful, as someone who loved the octo expansion
This was a really good Direct and I love everything they showed off, I'm so excited for this game!!!
@Snatcher "This is the only thing I’m at odds about. Not the dlc, but how there just going to drag out content, which is painfully obvious"
Splatoon 3 is made by the team that made Animal Crossing New Horizons, go figure... :-/
@Otoemetry honestly with the 8 modes we got plus dlc on the way, im more than fine with them just refining the existing ones, even if i was expecting 1 or 2 new modes (unless you wanna count table turf and tri-color turf wars lol)
This legitimately feels like the best $60 value on the system in awhile.
But is the online party system fixed? It was very annoying that my friend would have to wait through multiple matches before being able to join my battles (on my team or against my team). I would buy Splatoon 3 if they solely fixed that issue.
It's likely Nintendo will try to put that DLC through the NSO Expansion Pack too similar to the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Pack and the Animal Crossing Expansion.
@Snatcher i wanna be surprised but thats just par for the course with splatoon, they have egregious launch weeks that smooth out over time. theyre seeming more generous with the amount of stages at launch at least? but even then i think splatoon handles the free update model the best, their sports games should take notes
This looks like a hard pass for me. At least initially.
@Slinkoy1
"Alright, everybody get the annoying "nintendo game not finished on launch!?!?!" Comments out of the way."
With my pleasure.
See, I told ya. 😏
Not entirely sure why anyone would be excited that they’re going to be charged more later down the line for stuff we don’t know isn’t in the game at launch?
Announcing paid DLC before a game launches is always a bad look. It's especially true in this case, as many are actively questioning if Splatoon 3 is enough of an improvement over 2.
Don't get me wrong, I think paid DLC for Splatoon 3 could be great, but the focus for now should be on wowing us with the base game.
Did I see it right?? Can you choose "team ranked" even if you are playing solo?? Does it mean you can choose between 2 competitive modes to play when playing solo??
@SonOfASwitch
Yes
"Large-scale paid DLC"
Refreshingly honest from Nintendo.
@Bunkerneath If Splatoon is a money sinkhole, then Pokemon is crater-sized in comparison
The paid DLC is clearly going to be Octo Expansion 2, which is fine. As hyped for Splatoon 3 as I am, the critiques about it being more of the same have a point now. However, there are some seriously good QOL changes. Now we can practice before a match. Choosing to join someone sounds like it will help with matchmaking, which has arguably been Splatoon’s biggest problem. Too often newbies get slaughtered for going up against veterans or vice-versa.
@Bunkerneath ill gives 3 the benefit of the doubt cause amiibo support has always been insignificant and everyone loving the dlc in 2. but for casuals i think it'll be very skippable without missing much
NOPE - this game is dead in the water for me. Paying $60+ to start and then having to pay for the rest of the game. BS. The the worst culprit of this is Hot Wheels Unleashed and Switch owners don't even get to participate in any of the cool contests. When is this BS with shipping out an incomplete game going to stop. I am all for DLC but not at this level.
@Bunkerneath
Same. As a huge fan of the first game, this series has lost me too.
@boxyguy Well I kinda wanted to get it for the content aspect I guess. Just. Man it’s going to take a wile before we get all the good stuff.
@Clyde_Radcliffe Bruh.
Feels like Splatoon 2 all over again. Some nice improvements and the katana-style weapon looks amazing, but after putting 250 hours into Splatoon 2 and reaching S rank in all modes + octo expansion to think it will be all the same is not worth it at least for me. Maybe in the future I will get it, but not at launch...
So the Switch has at least another two years of life left in her, good! Game sounds pretty fun, think I'll get it then crack open a cold, frosty Monster Zero Ultra just like the 30 year old boomer meme
I lost interest when I found out it only has five new levels for Turf War :-/ Other seven are returns, including four from Splatoon 2. No excuse for not having all new levels, honestly... and if they're gonna bring old ones back the new levels should at least be a MAJORITY of the levels.
@Snatcher yeah if youre not hype for the game it could be good to just wait out the content for a while. all previous weapons are returning so i hope that'll at least keep weapon rollout consistent
@MrPKOmega I had hundreds of hours logged into my Splatoon2 character and lost EVERYTHING when I upgraded to the OLED Switch. It was the only game I could not transfer/recover. It was then that I lost all interest in the game. And the more I think about it. Once the servers go down for Splattoon 2, there will be no way to play the game anyway, and I have a feeling that will hold true for S3.
@boxyguy Oh no I’m hyped! I haven’t played a lot of 2. In fact I actually didn’t buy the game just to wait for 3.
Announcing DLC before the base game has even launched and with inflation through the roof who would have thought. Greed knows no bounds even in these trying times.
@Snatcher hope you enjoy it! the games just add more and more so its bound to be a treat if you havent play 2 much
@Slinkoy1 I mean, annoying as it may be, does it make it any less true? This crap is bad practice and it is tiring pretending that it isn't. If you feel you are getting your money's worth, cool, but people will moan regardless... and quite right too.
@Slinkoy1 - Dude, I am still waiting for the "complete" version of Splatoon 2 to come to NA.
I like to have my content accessible for years.
@RushDawg I disagree. They've only announced that there will be paid DLC, not what it is. It's good that they are honest up front that there will be more to (optionally) pay for. Simply waiting a few months to announce it doesn't make it any better or worse value.
Are people really angered that Nintendo announced DLC for the game before launch? They have announced DLC for multiple big games prior to their respective launches, including Smash Bros Ultimate, Breath of the Wild, Xenoblade 3, Fire Emblem, etc.
There would have been DLC for this game regardless of when it's announced. Better to make it clear now (while also explaining how long the game will be supported) than later.
No issues here as long as it's as satisfying and expansive as the Octo Expansion.
2 years of post launch support!! There you have it!..no Switch “Pro” until atleast 2024!
Honestly I can’t recall Splatoon being this decisive! Some are hyped for 3 but there’s lots of “meh” and disappointment too! This has definitely become one of Nintendos most vocal 1st party franchise communities.
@Slinkoy1 You'd think everyone would have come to grips with this by now. It is simply the time we live in. Everyone else does it so it is not reasonable to expect Nintendo not to. I personally like that the internet has allowed games to now be updated with new content as long as its not pay to win garbage.
DLC has me waitimg for major sale once I know what the FULL game includes! I hate this practice
@chardir The same logic applies to the silent majority's attitude to the free update model. It doesn't matter whether you think a game like Strikers Battle League is satisfactory on release or not, it's 60$ now and it will still be 60$ in the foreseeable future after all free updates are done.
@Rykdrew Honestly, that’s on you for expecting the game to be something it isn’t. Splatoon has always been about online multiplayer with other people. Understandably, bots have been a part of other franchises. But this is Nintendo we’re talking about, they’re late to everything online-related. And you want them to come up with AI that can think up tactics beyond basic run and gun? That know how to be stealthy? That can do complex moves like sub-strafing? That’s stuff not even regular FPS’s could deliver! (I mean, have you played against the female Octolings in story mode in Splatoon 1? They’re not great. Even Agent 3 from Octo Expansion was good only because of buffs) I wouldn’t mind bots, either. But I need them to be smarter than ‘doorstops with higher accuracy’. Consider playing games while they’re fresh. You’re never going to have a better chance to experience an online game the same way as when the game is new and the servers are populated. That’s just how it is.
@Serpenterror @Fizza @westman98 I hope so. I got my expansion pack free for maxing out my NSO time (which is 2 years, 9 months) in anticipation for the time I’ll spend on Splatoon 3. DLC included will be just icing on the cake for me.
@Otoemetry They didn’t say anything about Clam Blitz in 2 before launch and then it dropped later. I expect at least one more new ranked mode to come out.
You mean like they did with Animal Crossing?
@masterLEON
" Splatoon has always been about".
Thanks for such a polite reply. So...I don't like this kind of answer. Why can't the game "be more"? From this point of view, Smash Bros, until the Game Cube version, had "always been" a multiplayer game. But....Nintendo expanded this concept, introducing offline modes, with story, in the base game, full of details. The game has more single player content than online multiplayer options. "Always have been" does not seem to me to give an eternal "full stop".
" And you want them to come up with AI that can think up tactics beyond basic run and gun?"
It's exactly what we want. Is Nintendo a big company or a tiny company? We've always treated it like a big company. Small companies are doing a lot more than Nintendo. A small company that produced Pummel Party. See Pummel Party is a Mario Party, which allows you to play online with up to 8 players simultaneously, with great online quality, and much more options, customizations and variety that Mario Party has. The game costs $9, and has bots for offline play, with VARIOUS skill levels available. And there are 7 simultaneous bots with different personality levels. Much more than Nintendo at Mario Party.
Indies games like Water Warfare for wii, made bots with spectacular AI, in a game that cost $7....why can't Nintendo put BOTS in Splatoon, a $60 game?
@chardir It’s just bad optics to announce paid DLC before a game even launches. This is especially true if the base game is unfinished (for lack of a better word) and we don’t know what content will be coming with the free updates and what content will be behind a paywall.
We also don’t know if it changes the overall value at this point, because we don’t know what the free updates will be nor do we know what the paid DLC will be. Is the DLC going to be single player stuff like Octo Expansion? Or is it gonna be like some of the modes that got added on Splatoon 1 / 2 for free like Rainmaker / Clam Blitz? We just don’t know at this point.
So the DLC is getting it's own DLC
@Slinkoy1 They're not doing it with this one, this time is that it's just a copy paste job from the first 2 games so there's literally no reason why anyone to upgrade....
They ignore that splat 2 came out 5 freaking years ago... lmao
...Paid DLC plans before the game is even released....that's a good sign.
@Bearzilla823 That’s such a shame. My transfer went well with all of my games including Splatoon 2 but except for Breath of the Wild, which I just 100% the month before the OLED released.
Such a bummer.
@Ewaldus Ouch. That really sucks. I'd thrown mine through the window if that happened to me. That game is not easy to 100% from what I gather.
@Rykdrew The size of a company has no correlation to what they can do, though. It’s all down to the teams that actually work on the games, and their experience and expertise. I don’t think we can get bots in Splatoon because :
1) Splatoon is made by the Animal Crossing team. Think about that for a second. I cannot expect complex A.I. from them. And from what I’ve played from both games and the Octo Expansion, basic is all they can do. Rock-dumb A.I. that can be defeated with a little smarts and patience. They don’t seem to have the expertise to make an A.I. good enough to help teach a player how to play the game and utilize all the mechanics at their disposal. That’s the point, right? You want targets to shoot at, but also be able to learn the game from them. As it is, just going through the single-player story mode (obstacle courses, basically) is a better teacher than the enemies you encounter. Substandard A.I./bots are not good for the overall experience. Truth be told, I can still fire up my older computer and play Unreal Tournament, UT2004, or Quake 3 Arena, load up some bots and have a good time. But that’s only because they don’t need more than simple A.I. since the game mechanics themselves are simple. Even Mario Party, from your example, only needs simple A.I. (plus a higher performing ‘rival’ for increased challenge…and cheats, Lol). For Splatoon, the ink makes things much more complex and more open for new styles of gameplay. And we need to hold those bots up to higher standards.
2) Splatoon is literally Nintendo’s first in-house multiplayer shooter. Even though the game is fun, popular, and somewhat groundbreaking (IMO, and I’ve been playing FPS’s since Wolfenstein 3-D), the Animal Crossing team adapted the genre and put their twist on it (the whole ‘ink’ mechanic) with the goal of creating a competitive, eSports-ready game. So they are focused on making the game playable online first and foremost. Bots consume extra resources and dev time that could have been used to polish up the game to make it more appealing to stick around and keep playing. That brings me to the next point.
3) Longevity. Nintendo is not like other companies when it comes to online play, we know that. But the one thing we can count on is that unless essentially no one is playing one of their games (mobile excluded), or as long as the services aren’t too demanding (Mario Maker 1, for example), then they’ll still keep their servers up to play. I believe if GameSpy didn’t go belly up we’d still be able to play DS and Wii games online simply because of their combined install base around the world. And unlike games like Lawbreakers, Battleborn, Evolve, and Back4Blood, you can still get into some Turf War and Ranked battles in Splatoon 1 on WiiU! Those games lived and died within Splatoon 1’s lifespan, which is still going on. Adding bots that fill up slots on teams for matchmaking are one thing, but when the entire match is just you and bots, wouldn’t that mean the game has outlived it’s interest? Can you keep playing playing a game like that forever? Just because I can go back to Unreal Tournament and Q3A doesn’t mean I’ll spend a significant time playing. The time for those games have passed. I’ve had some great fun when they were new and populated. But as life happens, we just move on looking for the next interesting thing. Splatoon is no different. It’s like good tea or coffee, the best time to enjoy it is while it’s hot.
@masterLEON I understood everything you wrote, but I don't agree.
In 1999 Unreal Tournament already had great artificial intelligence.
Small companies have always made great artificial intelligences...
Arc System Works (unknown at the time) already made great AI in Guilty Gear in the late 90's. Small companies manage to make great AI, like Water Warfare for the old wiiware (Hudson Soft).
Bungie 20 years ago put on a show of artificial intelligence and it was literally their first shooter (Halo). At a time when no one knew online well, they did an absurd thing, on the first try. Nobody knew what Bungie was.
In 1995, Single Trac (small, unknown softhouse) made Twisted Metal for Playstation....GREAAAAAT AI.
At the time of the Dreamcast (1999), Unreal Tournament already had a more elaborate online game than Splatoon 2. We are talking about 23 years ago. When a participant left the match, he was replaced by a bot. In Splatoon, if a player folds during the match, he is not replaced by a bot and disrupts the entire team. THIS IS NOT FUN.
Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars (today, Rocket League) was made by modders (!!!), normal people in their houses), and when a player folds during the match, he was replaced by a bot !! And the GREAT AI was made by modders (Unreal)...without structure or investiments(!!!)
Is it time for Nintendo to hire artificial intelligence engineers? It seems overdue for anyone who wants to compete in a style of game that, from what you've written, seems "too much" for Nintendo.
Is making programming that other companies have been able to do for over 20 years too much for Nintendo? That's it? If so, it's pretty disappointing! In my opinion, of course.
From your answer, it seems that Nintendo is very limited and incapable of evolving and learning to do things that have been done for over 20 years!
This is more, in your words, for Small N than Big N! Small companies around the world can, but Nintendo can't. weird!
The fact is that games have got cheaper in real terms over the last 30 years, and people won’t pay more than 50 or 60 quid for a new game, so for big games it seems a common practice to split a game up into base game and dlc. The end result is you pay about the equivalent of what a game would have cost all those years ago, accounting for inflation. Unless you don’t want the dlc, in which case you pay less and get less.
For me I think splatoon base game is worth the full price alone. Yes it’s got a lot of similarities to 1 and 2 but it’s enough for me. I’ll see what the paid dlc is and decide if it’s worth splashing out on at the time. Almost considering it as a separate game I suppose.
But hey, that’s just me
@Bearzilla823 thanks for sharing, I almost was convince to buy it but was scared that the single player content just wouldn't be there. Hopefully after release it proves me wrong on that topic, cuz it's definitely not worth paying 60 dollars for only online multiplayer with future dlc that also cost. Rather buy Strikers league at this point...😂
People seem to misunderstand. Games getting future support isn’t bad on it’s own. The issue is Nintendo will put out games with minimal content or low replayability and update it later. Splatoon is a series that millions will play every month regardless. For starters, shops will refresh, and so will maps. There’s story mode, salmon run, and there’s the card game. And lockers are neat too. Other games with future support will have 1 maybe 2 half baked modes with one way to play, warranting less people to come back. Think of all the weapon, ability and special combinations to tackle different maps. People will be playing splatoon 3 because there’s depth to the modes. Should it have had at least 1 new ranked mode? Yeah. Is it a dealbreaker? No. Just because there’s future content planned doesn’t mean it’s bad or even comparable to the faults of say Nintendo Switch Sports, Mario Strikers Battle League or Mario Golf Super Rush. I’d say this is worth it.
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