Splatoon 4 confirmed…?

[Lisku]

Take this with a grain of salt but, someone has found Splatoon 4/next splatoon entry data (idk how). this is really exciting to see. Again theres a high chance that this is fake so dont dont get your hopes up

 

[Cephalobro]

I don't really see Splatoon 4 in the first year of the next system, not only it will be a stupid move business-wise due to the fact that a lot of players will probably be feeling Splatoon fatigue, thus leading Splatoon 4 in not selling a lot of copies, it would also skip Animal Crossing's turn to get a new entry, which to tell you the truth, currently deserves another entry before a Splatoon 4.

Besides, since Splatoon 4 is most likely going to start a new arc, Nintendo can use this opportunity to keep the game in development a lot longer so it has a strong release. And no, I don't mean content-wise, I mean with fewer bugs and glitches upon release. My hope at this point is for Splatoon 4 to at least release in the system's third year, not too early and not too late.

 

[Aiko.Octo]

Ooooh that's fun. That leaker has been historically pretty credible iirc; I don't think their information is fake. Their conclusions, maybe. But that said I guess the fact that there's a project in the works doesn't tell us a whole lot; these things take so many years to develop, after all. If they were just starting development now we're probably still looking at 2 years minimum.

That said there is some speculation/assumption/hope that nintendo would want to do something big to celebrate splatoon's 10 year anniversary next year. it might not literally be The Next Main Splatoon Game, but it probably won't be nothing.

regardless it's exciting to have (probable) confirmation that something is happening. "Spiral" leaves a lot to the imagination, but that is part of the fun :D

 

[Driftwood]

Ooooh that's fun. That leaker has been historically pretty credible iirc; I don't think their information is fake. Their conclusions, maybe. But that said I guess the fact that there's a project in the works doesn't tell us a whole lot; these things take so many years to develop,

Totally agree with this. I'm not sure why so many people (on Twitter) seem to be making the assumption that this means S4 might be coming out soon. My guess it's that it's likely in early pre-production.

 

[missingno]

There's no way we see S4 before Animal Crossing, it's just too soon. They gotta space it out more. So I'm wondering if perhaps this could be something other than 4?

I really don't think any kind of 3DX for Switch 2 makes sense either. Switch 2 is very very very very likely to be backwards compatible, and if a DX is substantial enough to merit a rerelease over just running S3 in BC mode, that would imply splitting the playerbase and be a terrible idea. Also worth considering that S2 could've been S1DX but they decided to make a full sequel, so I don't see that happening now either.

Spinoff maybe? But with the scale of game development these days, spinoffs are less and less of a thing anymore. (This is why I miss handhelds)

I got nothing. I'm really skeptical of S4 coming out this soon, but I'm just not sure what else it could be.

 

[Forma]

x.com

x.com

A link, for the skeptical.

I don't think anything about this implies that it's coming soon, just that it's a thing that is likely Splatoon 4. I trust the leaker's track record, but I can't read this as anything more meaningful than "A game that is likely Splatoon 4 is in development", which... yeah, duh? Was that really in doubt?

 

[DzNutsKong]

There's been some mention about this possibly being a spinoff...anyone have any further insights of this? I don't see any reason it COULDN'T be possible and I don't even have any idea what a Splatoon spinoff may look like.

 

[Driftwood]

Ok this is obviously just speculation but maybe this is indirectly an indication new content for S3 has ended. Like the plan could be, finish of the main body of work for S3, start pre-production on S4 + balance patches while the rest of the team is working on the next Animal Crossing game.

 

[Arigato!]

Maybe. But I swear if 3-5 years from now, I have to climb a spire(spiral) of order for the story line with sheldon's picks and no upgrades... I quit lol.

 

[Driftwood]

Maybe. But I swear if 3-5 years from now, I have to climb a spire(spiral) of order for the story line with sheldon's picks and no upgrades... I quit lol.

I really don't think people should read to much into the codename. The codename for Splatoon 3 was "Thunder".

 

[Arigato!]

I really don't think people should read to much into the codename. The codename for Splatoon 3 was "Thunder".

True, but I was joking.

 

[Driftwood]

True, but I was joking.

Apologies for missing that (though I've seen at least one person taking it more seriously on Twitter).

 

[Cephalobro]

I'm thinking we could have a spin-off instead of a Splatoon 4 for the time being. I have one idea for a spin-off they could do, but I don't know whether I should create a dedicated thread or just post my idea in this one.

 

[Deleted member]

spin-off=spiral


problem solved

 

[:pancakes:]

I don't really see Splatoon 4 in the first year of the next system, not only it will be a stupid move business-wise due to the fact that a lot of players will probably be feeling Splatoon fatigue, thus leading Splatoon 4 in not selling a lot of copies, it would also skip Animal Crossing's turn to get a new entry, which to tell you the truth, currently deserves another entry before a Splatoon 4.

Besides, since Splatoon 4 is most likely going to start a new arc, Nintendo can use this opportunity to keep the game in development a lot longer so it has a strong release. And no, I don't mean content-wise, I mean with fewer bugs and glitches upon release. My hope at this point is for Splatoon 4 to at least release in the system's third year, not too early and not too late.

i don't think you realize just how big Splatoon is especially in Japan. splatoon 3 was the fastest selling game in japan until scarlet/violet surpassed it a few months later, and within a month it had sold more than any other game that year. there were three years between 2 & 3, and that was with splatoon 2 being on switch. if the next console is backwards compatible, i'd imagine we'll get a similar gap between this game & 4, though probably a little shorter.

i also don't think making splatoon 4 means skipping an animal crossing release. the teams could be shifted around so that both could be developed at the same time, for example. i do think that a new animal crossing relatively early in the next console's lifespan makes sense; new horizons is the second-best selling first party game behind mario kart on switch.

assuming we get a spring release of the next console like with the switch, i think we could probably see splatoon 4 as either a holiday season year 1 game, or more likely late spring/early summer year 2. i imagine nintendo is going to be eager to try and repeat splatoon 3's success on their new console, and releasing earlier will be helpful for it; splatoon 2 still has around 2 million more sales than splatoon 3 & i imagine this is just because splatoon 2 released early on in the switch's life. people who just wanted more games to play on switch might have picked it up who wouldn't have later in the console's life when it had a more full library. being out for longer just meant more opportunities for people to buy the game as well.

 

[Cephalobro]

i don't think you realize just how big Splatoon is especially in Japan. splatoon 3 was the fastest selling game in japan until scarlet/violet surpassed it a few months later, and within a month it had sold more than any other game that year. there were three years between 2 & 3, and that was with splatoon 2 being on switch. if the next console is backwards compatible, i'd imagine we'll get a similar gap between this game & 4, though probably a little shorter.

i also don't think making splatoon 4 means skipping an animal crossing release. the teams could be shifted around so that both could be developed at the same time, for example. i do think that a new animal crossing relatively early in the next console's lifespan makes sense; new horizons is the second-best selling first party game behind mario kart on switch.

assuming we get a spring release of the next console like with the switch, i think we could probably see splatoon 4 as either a holiday season year 1 game, or more likely late spring/early summer year 2. i imagine nintendo is going to be eager to try and repeat splatoon 3's success on their new console, and releasing earlier will be helpful for it; splatoon 2 still has around 2 million more sales than splatoon 3 & i imagine this is just because splatoon 2 released early on in the switch's life. people who just wanted more games to play on switch might have picked it up who wouldn't have later in the console's life when it had a more full library. being out for longer just meant more opportunities for people to buy the game as well.

A game from a popular series will get a lot of sales regardless of when it's released, Splatoon is no exception. This is why it makes more sense to delay the release of Splatoon 4 rather than rush it. It's one thing for a game series to be popular, but it's another thing to keep a positive reputation, and a game riddled with bugs and glitches, especially those that make gameplay inconvenient, is bound to have a negative impact on the reputation of said game. Case in point, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are prime examples of games in this regard, they are often considered some of the worst Pokemon games by the players who played them due to how common the bugs and glitches in those games are.

Splatoon 3 also has been released with some glitches that really shouldn't have been there in the first place, like the glitch that allowed the Sloshing Machine to hit through solid walls and getting the error after failing to connect to other players. Splatoon 4 deserves a strong first year, not a first year with glitches and bugs that affect gameplay. So yes, Nintendo should take their time with Splatoon 4, or else this series will suffer the same fate as Pokemon where there's not enough time to fix things before release, and the one thing that's sure to kill a relatively new series is bad reputation.

 

[missingno]

Case in point, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are prime examples of games in this regard, they are often considered some of the worst Pokemon games by the players who played them due to how common the bugs and glitches in those games are.

They are also the third best selling installment in the series, after RGB and SwSh.

Rushed games make money. Delays cut into profit margins.

 

[Cephalobro]

They are also the third best selling installment in the series, after RGB and SwSh.

Rushed games make money. Delays cut into profit margins.

The thing with that is that it's not universal, Pokemon and Splatoon did not have the exact same success stories as each other. Pokemon was around for so much longer, so of course it already had the type of install base that it has now, so Pokemon had 3 decades worth of experience while Splatoon, despite it being really popular in Japan, is way behind in the rest of the world in terms of popularity. Pokemon can afford to have one or so buggy entries and not matter much in the end while Splatoon cannot. Splatoon 3, as obvious by the title, is only the third entry of the series released, which means more care has to be put into new entries before it can get the safety net of a large worldwide install base.

Also, back then, bugs and glitches were documented a lot slower due to the lack of easy-access internet, so any bugs or glitches at the time were typically spread through word-of-mouth. But today is different, most bugs or glitches that are found in a game released in today's age get found almost instantly on the internet, which can really hurt the sales of a game whose series basically just got started.

 

[Driftwood]

As a side note, I think a lot of people overstate Splatoon 3's success with the factoid that it was the fastest selling game in Japan. That's impressive but what it really says is that the series has a very loyal core fanbase, particularly in Japan. Having a loyal fanbase is valuable but it's not everything. Volume of sales is really their bread and butter.

Also...Nintendo is a global company. Yeah it's based Japan but global sales are the important thing. Maybe to they have some small amount of bias for their home country but Japan is not Nintendo's biggest market, and their overall sales are going to be the primary driver of their decisions.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying Splatoon isn't successful. But it is one successful series among many that Nintendo has in it's stable, and is definitely not their the main jewel in their crown by any means.

 

[missingno]

Also, back then, bugs and glitches were documented a lot slower due to the lack of easy-access internet, so any bugs or glitches at the time were typically spread through word-of-mouth. But today is different, most bugs or glitches that are found in a game released in today's age get found almost instantly on the internet, which can really hurt the sales of a game whose series basically just got started.

Back when? In 2022? I thought we were talking about SV here. Sales were not hurt at all.