The Future of Splatoon

[ThatSquidYouKnow]

I think that we can safely say that Nintendo will no longer be supporting Splatoon with updates or splatfests, and that Spla2n is not coming anytime soon. Although I don't really play the game much or interact with the community much anymore, it's kinda become one with my online persona, I'll always be ThatSquidYouKnow from now on. To go back to Splatoon now would be frightening for me, last time I played it I was an A+ rank charger main, but I played 1 match of turf war and got absolutely dominated. But I can't let this game die, even if I can't play it anymore. Unless we, as a community, start "preparing for the Apocalypse" by making custom servers, starting more tournaments, modding new weapons and such, Splatoon may very well just die and be a forgotten IP. The future of Splatoon is in the hands of the community. Back when I was younger, I played a game that maybe a few of you know, called Lego Universe. It was an MMORPG, but after 2 years I believe, they shut down the servers out of nowhere. Nobody was ready for it, and the community died for the most part. I think it was only 2015, when they started developing the first custom servers for it, and now, here we are, in 2016, and those servers still only grant access to the first few areas of the game. Basically what I'm trying to say here, is that as a community, we need to get together, and think of a plan for Splatoon's future, if we want it to be a game with a thriving competitive community that can stand alongside Smash, and other such titles. Thanks for reading if you took the time to.

tl;dr start making custom servers and supporting the game as a community

 

[Aori]

Just because there's no more splatfests doesn't mean that splatoon is doomed. Calm down.

 

[swamphox]

I dont think thats what he means but that its good to have contingency in place. Problem is, for Joe Blow off the street thats a lot of resources to devote to a hypothetical.

 

[Flareth]

That the devs are finally finished with the game has little bearing on how "alive" the game is. And the community's been serving since day 1 by just playing the damn game. We don't need to take such drastic action just yet, if ever.

 

[ThatSquidYouKnow]

That the devs are finally finished with the game has little bearing on how "alive" the game is. And the community's been serving since day 1 by just playing the damn game. We don't need to take such drastic action just yet, if ever.

Basically what I'm saying is that we just need to start working on servers and stuff in case nintendo decides to shut down the game's servers.

 

[Aori]

Basically what I'm saying is that we just need to start working on servers and stuff in case nintendo decides to shut down the game's servers.

That's going to be rather hard considering the fact it's a console game and not a PC game.

 

[Cuttlefish]

That's going to be rather hard considering the fact it's a console game and not a PC game.

apparently people made their own servers for some iteration of Mario Kart (i think the wii one?), so that's probably where the idea comes from. no idea how it worked, though.

anyway, the Wii U is still being supported, and Splatoon will still probably get bug fixes and the like. the only difference is, no content updates and no splatfests. we already have been sort of without content for a while, so we're used to that by now.

there's NO WAY that Nintendo would close the servers before Splatoon 2 comes out, which will certainly happen, but will take a few years at the least.

 

[SpiralRhapsody]

apparently people made their own servers for some iteration of Mario Kart (i think the wii one?), so that's probably where the idea comes from. no idea how it worked, though.

anyway, the Wii U is still being supported, and Splatoon will still probably get bug fixes and the like. the only difference is, no content updates and no splatfests. we already have been sort of without content for a while, so we're used to that by now.

there's NO WAY that Nintendo would close the servers before Splatoon 2 comes out, which will certainly happen, but will take a few years at the least.

Not even just Mario Kart. Animal Crossing City Folk servers are totally a thing (a much needed thing on that note, but that's a whole other topic) to this day. It is definitely within the realm of possibility to create dedicated servers for games no longer supported by Nintendo.

That'll definitely be the case; Splatoon is going to be Halo 2 for many years to come until the NX or whatever reaches its old age too. If the rumors are true to even some extent, I doubt the plug will be pulled from Splatoon even when the sun falls on the NX, as (again, rumor) Nintendo is seeking ways to support cross play between the wii u and nx, with NX remasters of wii u games including Splatoon (third and final time, just a rumor, so I'm not holding this as anything super concrete, it's just food for thought)

 

[CM2]

Do you think 2.10.0 is the last update for Splatoon or there will be more?

Either way a port of Splatoon for the Nintendo NX wouldn't surprise me but the Nintendo NX needs more than just Wii U ports to be a successful console.

 

[Aori]

apparently people made their own servers for some iteration of Mario Kart (i think the wii one?), so that's probably where the idea comes from. no idea how it worked, though.

Woah. I didn't even know that was possible. Interesting.

 

[Airi]

No, Nintendo is not giving up on Splatoon. This doomday mentality in the Splatoon fandom needs to stop. The Splatfests ended. It does not mean that the game is ending nor that Nintendo won't support it. To the contrary actually, the Japanese Twitter posted a tweet about how they will continue to study and improve Splatoon. It doesn't sound like Nintendo intends to give up on Splatoon; this is just doomsday mentality from players who are attempting to find an issue where there simply isn't one.

Yes, Splatfests have ended. They costed a lot of money though between the servers, artists, and promotions. Splatfest was only a very small part of Splatoon. Just because they ended doesn't mean that Nintendo is ending Splatoon. They will probably still update the game with weapon balances and maybe release new items in the future. They still have glitches in the game to fix so they can't be done haha. :P

Splatoon is a cash cow. It has made Nintendo a great amount of money. Nintendo isn't stupid. They're not going to give up and forget about a game that is making them thousands of dollars and has become one of their most popular series. There is little to worry about. Splatoon will continue and the servers will continue for many more years most likely. Eventually, the Wii U servers will be shut down as the Wii servers were but that's not for a few more years at least. By then, Splatoon will have a sequel on the NX probably.

 

[Green Waffles]

The future of spatoon?

Just a fruit-for-thought tid-bit no one has mentioned yet:
Mr. Nintendy has said before that they have finished with weapon updates...

and then released more weapons =P

 

[Aori]

That makes sense. Maybe we'll see more sheldon's picks, but at the same time those aren't actually "new weapons" more than recolors with different subweapons.
However on this topic, does anyone know what this is?

I saw it on the japanese twitter, but I am not sure if it's an event of some time (or if it's exclusive to japan). Perhaps they're still going to do little events for the game?

 

[Cuttlefish]

That makes sense. Maybe we'll see more sheldon's picks, but at the same time those aren't actually "new weapons" more than recolors with different subweapons.
However on this topic, does anyone know what this is?

I saw it on the japanese twitter, but I am not sure if it's an event of some time (or if it's exclusive to japan). Perhaps they're still going to do little events for the game?

it literally says "Summer Holiday! Children's Splatoon Experience Exhibition"

 

[Dessgeega]

Hey, it's the Promo Art Crew! Haven't seen those guys in a while :P

As for Splatoon, it's just a tad early to start "preparing for the apocalypse". The other games aren't the greatest comparisons either - Mario Kart and Animal Crossing are still totally playable offline and also made in a different Nintendo era and mindset. I'm not even mentioning the MMO brought up.

Game's up and still making crazy money for Nintendo. The playerbase will die out long before the actual game does.

 

[Brie_no.20]

They invested so much in promoting this game. Why would they drop its servers after only one year? Especially when it reaped so much success?

 

[⭐️Zapfish⭐️]

Spoiler: My concern about Splatoon 2

To be honest I think Splatoon 2 is a good idea. However I am worried that if Splatoon 2 begins, everyone will switch to this game, and there won't be enough Splatoon (1) players. Nintendo could shut down the Splatoon (1) servers, but even then, no one really would want to buy Splatoon (1) unless they were fine with pointless shopping, minigames, and of course the finite Octo Valley (Which, don't get me wrong, I love Octo Valley) but this almost definitely won't be enough for the majority of players.

Please reply if you have any solution ideas!

 

[Glacei]

Considering it's a new title for Nintendo, and their first step into the shooter genre of games, it's unlikely they'll shut down the servers for it for at least a few more years. Even if/when Splatoon 2 is confirmed, people will still play the original for years to come. I say they probably won't shut down their servers, but if they do, it won't be for a very, very long time.

 

[SpiralRhapsody]

Spoiler: My concern about Splatoon 2

To be honest I think Splatoon 2 is a good idea. However I am worried that if Splatoon 2 begins, everyone will switch to this game, and there won't be enough Splatoon (1) players. Nintendo could shut down the Splatoon (1) servers, but even then, no one really would want to buy Splatoon (1) unless they were fine with pointless shopping, minigames, and of course the finite Octo Valley (Which, don't get me wrong, I love Octo Valley) but this almost definitely won't be enough for the majority of players.

Please reply if you have any solution ideas!

I'd hate to see the original Splatoon become a wasteland when the destined "Splatoon 2" rolls around. Ideally, it would be in Nintendo's best interest to keep Splatoon alive while making Splatoon 2 an obvious upgrade of the original but is a different game in its own right. Yeah, maybe sequels can very well be simple "upgrades" from predecessors (Brawl to Smash 4), but come on, you don't have to kill Splatoon when making a sequel.

Which leads me to an idea I just thought of while typing up the first part of my post; what if Splatoon never got a sequel and Nintendo had another pitch for a competitive multiplayer game...

 

[MindWanderer]

Splatoon sales are way up, so there's no reason to think a shutdown is anywhere near imminent. I'd guess no less than a year after the sequel comes out.

Copyright law allows games to be hacked if it's the only way to get them to work when official online support ends. So a homebrew version, while probably needing a jailbroken Wii U to work, would be legal at that time. If Project M can happen, so can Splatoon support.

Since Splatoon matches are handled peer-to-peer and only the matchmaking occurs via Nintendo's servers, they really don't have much reason to take the servers down ever--the load will only decline over time. Then again, they have no reason at all to delete Super Mario Maker levels, so meh.