Splatoon 2: Find Out What's Fresh! (General Discussion)

[Spaceswitchmars]

Unless of course, maybe a new online Nintendo (SSB5) title is looming around the corner! please please Nintendo

I gotta think this will be the case. My guess is Smash 4 Deluxe, but I'm also bad at guessing.

Speaking of being bad at guessing, though, weapon guess? I'm gonna say the neo splash-o-matic or whatever it's called. That beauty will have....

Spoiler: KIT SPOILERS

...burst bombs and suction bomb rush? What the fork, that's awesome.

Assuming the kit from the datamine goes unchanged.

 

[MINKUKEL]

I'm sure there will still be occasional updates and Splatfests by the time the online subscribtion hits, so I don't see why you'd stop playing Splatoon.

IDK, 20 bucks isn't that much in my opinion. That's less that 2 bucks a month. Just try to save 2 bucks on your groceries one time a month and you've made it back.

 

[Award]

Well. . .
at least I now know when the fun ends
Nintendo
why?

PS: If you're excited about the paid service, save our time, I've heard it all.
Just don't talk to me about it =/

.....that picture is going to be burned in my head forever more. Thank you for destroying everything nice. :p

Paid service really sucks. I don't get why it's needed to be a thing, honestly it's a risky move for a console that just launched so well. Why jeopardize you console by potentially splitting the userbase? Being the sucker I am I'll cram it and pay the 20 bucks, but god, it feels really gross and out of touch for Nintendo as a brand. It's a worrying move in a time where Nintendo has really been stellar with quality. On the much brighter side of things, Arowana Mall is back baby! I loved this map, and feel it perfectly embodies the urban punk aesthetic of Splatoon, so I'm pretty stoked to see it return.

I don't think it will split the user base. You'll either have people that play online and buy it or people that don't play online and don't. Everyone active on Squidboards will have bought it, otherwise they wouldn't be playing. RPG fanatics probably won't. But it's not a split. I still think it's a strange move, though I suspect a lot of it has to do with third parties. Companies like Ubisoft, EA, etc, get a cut of those PSN/XBL subs to run their always online worlds, and I imagine they demanded Nintendo get with the program. Plus XBL and PSN+ have been hailed as amazing revenue streams of ever increasing pure profit for MS and Sony, so I'm guessing Nintendo wanted a bit of that pie since the game buyers have showed they don't care, unfortunately. Not to mention running a game like Splatoon for 2 years with updates certainly costs them more than a one-and-done release of a single player game. I guess that helps bridge the money gap in a cheaper way than DLC and microtrans. We do constantly demand they balance, tweak, and nerf things...and we demand they do the work for free.... $1.66/mo to nerf nzap isn't too much to ask I guess. :p Still, unless there's an up-side it's still just profiteering.

I was half tempted to get back into PC just to avoid the fees...and then I realized $1k to save $60/yr PSN + $20/yr NO probably isn't a smart plan. :p Which is exactly how they get away with it.

Considering that I don't know a single soul who doesn't have an online subscribtion for the PS4 or XB1, and the Switch's equivalent is much, much cheaper, I doubt 'splitting' the userbase is a thing. Maybe the perks you get are even worth the price alone, though I doubt they'll be that spectecular, and I have played most major Ninty releases anyway.

Anyway, can't wait to try out Arowana tomorrow.

Oh I'm sure the perks will be as good as MyNintendo..........oh, wait..... :p

Actually for PSN I've subscribed on and off for years since 2010. I'd buy a year or 3 months to play one thing, then drop it for a year or two. Then subscribed for 2 years for cloud saves, then dropped it for years when they jacked it to $60. No reason to really buy it unless you're a heavy online gamer, which I'm not. I recently renewed because I dipped into a few sales and the savings with PSN on the digital prices was greater than the cost of the sub, so I basically got paid to take the sub for what I was buying. I doubt NO will have great member discounts and free games. That's the antics that drove PSN up to $60 from $50.....at $20, no way NO is doing that. If they do, it might actually be a bargain....like a membership to a warehouse club. But I doubt it.

The real question ought to be: Is there an incentive up ahead to convince people to pay 20 bucks for the service?

There's no real hook for me or anyone else to keep playing online by then. Most people will be burned out on S2/ARMS by the time the paywall will go up. And afaik, those are the only prominent online titles the Switch has, i'm pretty dang sure nobody's going to pay to keep playing MK8+.

Unless of course, maybe a new online Nintendo (SSB5) title is looming around the corner! please please Nintendo

I'm sure there will still be occasional updates and Splatfests by the time the online subscribtion hits, so I don't see why you'd stop playing Splatoon.

IDK, 20 bucks isn't that much in my opinion. That's less that 2 bucks a month. Just try to save 2 bucks on your groceries one time a month and you've made it back.

While you're right, that also amazes me how good humans are at rationalizing. We're being told to pay $20 a year for what we already had for free. Rationalizing it as "not that much" and it isn't, doesn't make that less bad. Did nobody find it odd that MS and Sony at the same time announced the exact same policies for X1/PS4? And Sony was to have the always online, disc as unlock key program X1 was skewered for....they revised it backstage with the "this is how you share games on PS4" video after the X1 backlash but that morning, PS4 and X1 were to be identical....mandatory subscriptions, digital-only disc unlock, etc. etc. And then Nintendo joins in slightly differently. If the platform holders are all operating from the same idea......who is it whispering the idea into their ear?

 

[Saber]

I gotta think this will be the case. My guess is Smash 4 Deluxe, but I'm also bad at guessing.

Speaking of being bad at guessing, though, weapon guess? I'm gonna say the neo splash-o-matic or whatever it's called. That beauty will have....

Spoiler: KIT SPOILERS

...burst bombs and suction bomb rush? What the fork, that's awesome.

Assuming the kit from the datamine goes unchanged.

So first off I do not believe this will be a port.

1. Smash bros switch supports 8 players, and frankly I don't know if the switch can really support that many controllers, so in term of cynicism I fon't believe this can really be carried over.

2. This game came out in 2014 that means they have had 4 years to work on it. Likely even when they do annoce it there will be almost a yesr wait to come out so that mean 5 years worth of work towards a port... (mind you it took 2 years for them to make a splatoon "sequel")

3. Liscensing rights it was cool to have cloud, ryu, and pay to win- onetta on the team but I don't know how many of these players will likely be renewed....they could honestly go the way of the snake.

4. There is a ton of new content they have to pull from, new character models, new gimmicks with the joycons, new ips that the switch has introduced us to.
Nintendo isn't stupid for it to wait this long for a game is eagerly expecting and then charging online only for us to get a port of the original?
Nah this is a new game bet my new squiffer on it.

 

[Spaceswitchmars]

So first off I do not believe this will be a port.

1. Smash bros switch supports 8 players, and frankly I don't know if the switch can really support that many controllers, so in term of cynicism I fon't believe this can really be carried over.

2. This game came out in 2014 that means they have had 4 years to work on it. Likely even when they do annoce it there will be almost a yesr wait to come out so that mean 5 years worth of work towards a port... (mind you it took 2 years for them to make a splatoon "sequel")

3. Liscensing rights it was cool to have cloud, ryu, and pay to win- onetta on the team but I don't know how many of these players will likely be renewed....they could honestly go the way of the snake.

4. There is a ton of new content they have to pull from, new character models, new gimmicks with the joycons, new ips that the switch has introduced us to.
Nintendo isn't stupid for it to wait this long for a game is eagerly expecting and then charging online only for us to get a port of the original?
Nah this is a new game bet my new squiffer on it.

These are all really good points. For most games, I always assume Nintendo will just release a Deluxe version of a Wii-U game in an attempt to pretend that the Wii-U never happened, but you've convinced me.

 

[Green Waffles]

You'll either have people that play online and buy it or people that don't play online and don't. Everyone active on Squidboards will have bought it, otherwise they wouldn't be playing.

I really like the game, I've played since day 3 of splat 1 launch.

I'm not paying $40+ more (that's a few years of subscription added together =/ ) for the privilege of playing online.

Why?
Well...

Still, unless there's an up-side it's still just profiteering.

you already know.

.....that picture is going to be burned in my head forever more. Thank you for destroying everything nice. :p

It's bound to happen at some point.

 

[Cyan]

Well. . .
at least I now know when the fun ends

Nintendo
why?

PS: If you're excited about the paid service, save our time, I've heard it all.
Just don't talk to me about it =/

On the bright side (is it really bright?) the paid service is set to come in after Splatoon 2's "1 year of content updates" promise ends, so at least you get to experience the full game for a whole month before the apocalypse! I have to say I do not know what Nintendo is thinking at this point continuing with this madness. It made sense to launch September 2017 as ARMS, Splatoon 2 and Pokken were all newly released and would have made people more willing to purchase a subscription. Launching September 2018 seems like a path to self-destruction. Who wants to pay for online then after they've had their fair share of ARMS, Splatoon 2, Pokken and MK8D?

Most casuals burn out of online games in about 8-12 months after launch, and when a game reaches EoL with updates (as Splatoon 2 will by September, only occasional balance patches will happen, and maybe more Sheldon Picks) most players have finished. Any Wii U owners (who still have their Wii U and MK8) would see the logic that they can play MK8 on Wii U for free (albeit with less characters and broken battle mode) rather than fork their cash out for MK8D online. ARMS sold well for a new IP, but it still flopped to be an appealing game with interesting online and the player base dropped off quickly much like Pokken on Wii U (which I had a feeling it would), and Pokken is in a similar position as the Wii U original.

So all signs are pointing to the likelihood of Nintendo announcing a slew of online games at E3 to reassure Switch owners that the online service is worth the asking price. Smash seems likely, and with all the other ports that have happened (MK8, Donkey Kong, Pokken, Splatoon being a 1.5 etc.) I wouldn't put it past them to slip us a Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo Switch with a combination of the Wii U and 3DS features with a few extra stages and characters tacked on (much like MK8D did with Battle Mode). We could see Metroid Prime 4 having some online thrown in (I know nothing about that series) to give more substance to the Nintendo Switch Online, and of course there's always Nintendo's random surprises, so we need to keep all eyes out on that front.

Finally, I'm rather surprised Arowana Mall is dropping tomorrow, we all knew it was due out February, but that's very early on, maybe they'll accelerate map releases and make sure we get all the original maps back? (I doubt that though) Either way I fell in love with Arowana at first, hated it midway through Splatoon 1, then fell in love again, so I can't wait, I just hope the changes we can see don't Moray Towers the map (take the map in its okayish final form and butcher it further). Also I found out about all the hard stats of Splatfests, how many people played, matches won etc. It turns out all of that data can be ripped out of SplatNet 2 on the Switch Online App and we have full proof on Splatfest statistics now. It's also a great way to see roughly how many players you have in each region for Splatoon 2. If you want to check them out for yourself head here: https://splatoonwiki.org/wiki/List_of_Splatfests_in_Splatoon_2#Data

As a final note, Team Ketchup would have won the first Splatfest if the results from each region were combined, Japan would have give Ketchup the Team Win point with the West giving the Popularity point.

 

[MINKUKEL]

Honestly, Splatoon is giving me more playtime than all other Switch games I have combined, so I don't think that paying the online fee even if it's just for Splatoon is that bad.

But who knows, the online thing might be worth it. We don't know what it is at all right now, so it seems a bit premature to be bitching about paying a measly 20 bucks.

As for Arowana dropping early. We have exactly 16 maps when it hits (not counting Shifty). I can almost see them just keeping that number since it's the same as S1, and there are no known stages left at this point. I hope that's not the case, but I wouldn't be surprised.

 

[Ansible]

Oof, @Green Waffles! The punchline of my favourite Splatoon fan-comic skit... questionable to post but metaphorically accurate. Pretty much that entire comic skit is metaphorically accurate.

Still not sure how I feel about paid online console services. Its a strong factor to what's kept me to the PC garden. But I'm guessing Nintendo keeps pushing the release so far back because they're just not ready.

Wonder how long it's going to take them to give out concrete details of the paid service. Maybe add new features to the console, like blasted messaging! And if they'll actually start making they're app overall useful.

And is there a splatfest or anything important-ish going on in Japan to warrant the map being released a day early? Or maybe this is to be our normal for new maps?

 

[MINKUKEL]

There is a splatfest this weekend in JP I think.

 

[Award]

I really like the game, I've played since day 3 of splat 1 launch.

I'm not paying $40+ more (that's a few years of subscription added together =/ ) for the privilege of playing online.

Why?
Well...


you already know.


It's bound to happen at some point.

I would make an exception in complaining if they did add dedicated servers for Splatoon 2. Fixing our lag and matchmaking issues at the cost of running a server farm for it....that's something that $1.66/mo is reasonable to ask. "privilege payments" to play on private connections with others s just bad, "access fees" to utilize their internal servers to pay is more reasonable. I think we won't know until E3.

OTOH, we paid $60 for Splatoon Deluxe Edition (includes season pass with Clam Blitz DLC, 30 new weapons, 6 new multiplayer maps), basically.....so we really ought to all hang our heads in shame regardless. We've been EA'd.

*ONE* thing is the Splatoon producer said something about considering extending splatoon's online free after the service launches. Not sure if that meant a September release or if it was earlier this year....but it's possible Splatoon could remain free a little longer while Pokemon Switch Online Bank Deluxe Daycare requires the sub (lets face it, that's where the sub will be needed...)

@Cyan I agree completely. The release of ARMS/Splatoon/MK8/Pokken...the whole multiplayer-heavy launch window with little single player seemed designed around promoting the subscription service. And then they delay it a year and a half when all the heavy hitting online games are already slowing down. Maybe Saber's new Smash 5 would do it. Or maybe Pokemon is indeed always online open world exploration or something. Or it's just because Acivision/EA/Ubi are demanding their royalties for their games to arrive. But it seems silly to front load switch with multiplayer, delay the subscription, wait for the games to slow down, start releasing waves of RPGs and action games, and THEN start subscriptions.

Maybe a Nintendo MMO with free play other than the subscription itself, could make it appealing. Grand Theft Scooter: New Donk: Online. Organize hat heists, knock over Crazy Cap with your Toad crew. Smoke some Fire Flowers in the park. I think I'll pass on Peach's, the rad new gentleman's club behind the RC track.

 

[ThatOneGuy]

For the weapon of the week, I'm crossing my fingers for the zink mini splatling

Spoiler: Kit Spoilerz

I'm no splatling main, but this is going to be a great weapon. Just because the kit can help the mini splatling paint even more. And this game needs more painting weapons anyway. Besides N-Zap, Brella, and the Jrs.

If we get this weapon tomorrow, I'm going to never switch to any other weapon again

Spoiler: Pls Nintendo

The Ultimate Weapon

 

[Award]

Oof, @Green Waffles! The punchline of my favourite Splatoon fan-comic skit... questionable to post but metaphorically accurate. Pretty much that entire comic skit is metaphorically accurate.

Still not sure how I feel about paid online console services. Its a strong factor to what's kept me to the PC garden. But I'm guessing Nintendo keeps pushing the release so far back because they're just not ready.

Wonder how long it's going to take them to give out concrete details of the paid service. Maybe add new features to the console, like blasted messaging! And if they'll actually start making they're app overall useful.

And is there a splatfest or anything important-ish going on in Japan to warrant the map being released a day early? Or maybe this is to be our normal for new maps?

I'm curious what the rest of the comic is, if that's the punchline. Have a link?

 

[Spaceswitchmars]

We could see Metroid Prime 4 having some online thrown in (I know nothing about that series) to give more substance to the Nintendo Switch Online, and of course there's always Nintendo's random surprises, so we need to keep all eyes out on that front.

There's really no telling if Prime 4 will have online co-op or PVP... just because a completely different studio is developing it than the other Prime games. However, PVP (local only, I believe?) was in Prime 2 on Gamecube and it was one of the biggest features in Prime Hunters on DS (it was actually pretty decent for a DS online mode). What I'm saying is I can totally see Prime 4 having some kind of online to help sell both the game and the online service. I'd hope that it would be more on the co-op side... something akin to the better elements of Destiny. Prime is so much about exploration that I'd much prefer that to PVP. But that's just me.

That said, Nintendo isn't stupid even if they baffle us with their decisions sometimes. They know they can't roll out a paid online service without releasing games around it. So I think you (and others in this thread) are right on the money about first party online games releasing around the online service release....

And we still don't know what Retro is doing.

If we get this weapon tomorrow, I'm going to never switch to any other weapon again

Spoiler: Pls Nintendo

View attachment 6084
The Ultimate Weapon

I've been thinking about this weapon a lot lately, but there's no way they're going to release a blaster two weeks in a row and that special so close to another weapon with the same special that has been release recently. But I've been dreaming about this gun. Dreaming.

 

[Saber]

Everyone is assuming that the subscription is delayed for a game, and it is quite possible it is, but I think this is more a problem with the servers combined with comminity complaints.

From my experince setting up a server take knowing what the servers would be used for (company server vs game server, the baseline to support the online service, the potential (exponential) growth in the usage of these servers, the cost, etc.

Nintendo has likely been working a deal to get dedicated servers to better support the paid online (at least that is what I would do).
But these timelines often shift many times depending on the expenses, some technical difficulties, and training/ testing

But again just my thoughts

 

[Green Waffles]

Oof, @Green Waffles! The punchline of my favourite Splatoon fan-comic skit... questionable to post but metaphorically accurate. Pretty much that entire comic skit is metaphorically accurate.

I can sympathize with Callie
Thanks for pointing out the obvious, went ahead and removed that
anyone who quoted might want to do the same.

 

[Spaceswitchmars]

Everyone is assuming that the subscription is delayed for a game, and it is quite possible it is, but I think this is more a problem with the servers combined with comminity complaints.

I think it's probably that the subscription got delayed for the reasons you outlined, but since it's already delayed, why not delay it more so it's in line with a game release? They want their stars to align to a certain extent.

 

[Award]

something akin to the better elements of Destiny.

I'm sorry, you seem to have written words here, but they don't make sense in any language I'm familiar with and Google Translate just takes me to the Borderlands 2 website. :P

 

[Spaceswitchmars]

I'm sorry, you seem to have written words here, but they don't make sense in any language I'm familiar with and Google Translate just takes me to the Borderlands 2 website. :p

Damn autocorrect always changes "Borderlands 2" to "Destiny." Clearly Bungie has planted some virus on my phone. But yes, this is what I meant. The better parts of Borderlands 2.

Kidding aside, Nintendo has the online PVP shooter on lockdown with Splatoon. Time for optional co-op campaign mode.

 

[zzmorg82]

Speaking of the online service; it kinda makes you wonder how it’ll effect S2 playerbase. Although $20 isn’t that much money to majority of Switch owners, it’s implied that the main player pool of this game are children. By adding a paywall to play this game; how many of them will have to ask their parents/guardians to drop money on something like this? If they say no, how will that effect the multiplayer portion of the game if they’re unable to hop on?

It’s interesting to think about.