So, About that Splatoon 2 New Year Artwork

[Cephalobro]

At first, it may seem just your ordinary celebratory artwork with common Salmonids holding Golden Eggs. But the light from the Golden Eggs makes SOS reflect on the surface of the water and if you look very closely on the water, you can see "Save Our Salmons". This is very peculiar because this might hint to some sort of spin-off or side game.


I have a theory on what this could mean, remember how I theorized that the winning side of the Chaos vs Order Splatfest would be the antagonists with a three-post fanfic in the form of speculation?

To me, the spin-off or side game will act like a half sequel where it will be just a story mode and no online multiplayer.

Here's what I think will happen, it will be the setup for the story of Splatoon 3. With Inkopolis laws gone, the Salmonids see it as the perfect nest for their species. However, at the same time, the Octarians also go to Inkopolis for the reason that the laws do not exist there. Of course, this would create a conflict between the Octarians and the Salmonids because of both wanting to go to Inkopolis for different reasons. You will get to see both side's points of view of what happened to them that made them act the way they do. After seeing the true reason why, both sides will have the good members defect from their side and join up, and I'm not talking about Octolings defecting, I'm talking about tentacle Octarians and common Salmonids defecting from their respective sides to join the Inkopolis culture, this will be reflected in Splatoon 3's storyline where the bad members of the Salmonid would invade Inkopolis due to DJ Octavio easily controlling them.

 

[Squidge]

Cool ideas but I think you are getting your hopes up too much like you said you would not do in a previous post about the new updates. Lol.

Give it a few more days and we might get some update picture of who took that picture just like the Christmas post. Probably it will be an inkling making some sort of shrugging / sorry gesture as he's not helping his teammate in the life preserver out in the water there. Hence the SOS joke. Tisk tisk....

Also I think it's clear that Nintendo doesn't have much plans for Splatoon outside of Japan, where it's still very popular. Hence why rest of the world didn't get a 2020 calendar, figures and all that new stuff in the Nintendo Japan boutique store being flipped for double, triple and even quadrupole the cost on eBay.

Also to back up that claim loss of interest outside Japan. Check out the latest numbers for the North American
2020 Winter Online (Inkling) Open that starts January 11th 2020.
https://battlefy.com/splatoon2

There is only 44 registered teams and it starts in almost a week! Way down from..

173 teams in August 2019 (last Splatfest ended July 2019),

556 teams in February 2019 (not bad as this is post Smash release Dec 2018) and the first one with..

629 teams in April 2018!

I think that "clearly" shows Nintendo that by not supporting the game with any online content updates, that the game is on a quick death. Splatoon 2 was just a re-code on top of the first game. Salmon run and Octo Ex are just external games sandwiched inside not linked up to the main game code (notice how salmon run online matches when adding friends worked better from day one?! Lol). Due to the massive amount of bugs that would be introduced by adding or fixing the main S2 lobby as the game code is old and from 2015, the new game will have to be fully programmed from scratch.

So 2021 for S3? Maybe even 2022?!
I hope not and hope for anything soon like your spin off salmon game idea but by then interest will be totally lost outside of Japan unless it has some sort of online multi player via so Nintendo can get more online subscriptions. I canceled my online last month as I'm not paying for less content. I thought paying for online would keep splatfests or at least other S2 content updates. The past 5 months have proven this is not gonna happen. Look at the squid research lab news channel on the switch too. Last post sadly was August 2018. Little balance tweaks and bug fixes don't count. Japan will always be there for Nintendo. So they don't need to be in a hurry for the new game?
Nintendo prove US wrong for 2020.

 

[Cephalobro]

Either way, I see both the Salmonids and the Octarians being involved in the story and both species being in conflict because of Octolings coming in and taking Golden Eggs from the Salmonids.

 

[Fabrunette]

This hints at a possible Salmonid main story? Honestly, can't wait to see how salmonkids will look (lol!)

 

[Gameboy224]

I'd love to see either a single player or co-op focused spin-off game with more story oriented setup.

Would do well to see the franchise branch off, especially since Splatoon 2 will fit the role of our competitive multiplayer game for some time to come.