Speaking of Splatoon 2, which has been
destroyed by Nintendo Switch Online™️, seems like it's getting one final promotional push with the final Splatfest.
Was featured during Nintendo's e3 tournaments and is even getting a Tetris 99 crossover.
Not sure if that'll showcase in a final boost this month.
Narratively it's clearly setting something up.
That the next story content is set in a world split in a world of chaos and a world of order (kind of like Splatoon 1 set up Callie and Marie in the sequel)
I'm sticking to my Splattershots here, pretty sure this is all leading up to Splatoon 3 to be released 2020.
Don't think there's much they can/will do to turf war, but I imagine they'll add a new mode along with a new campaign.
So, what do we expect the Splatoon team to try out?
Or in other words, what do we think would help improve Splatoon's reach?
Salmon Run, Splatoon's take on hoard mode, was the main new addition to Splatoon 2.
Don't think people care too much about hoard mode now a days, what's popular now is:
- Battle Royal - it's really popular but also really crowded. Worked out for CoD, issue would be if switch could handle it.
- Cooperative Hunting - might require all the efforts of single player content but it would likely work and be pretty popular if done right.
- Hero Shooter - seems like these aren't as popular anymore, but Nintendo's always a bit behind.
Or they might wait for one of these on Splatoon 4 on switch 2, or whatever.
A release next year would benefit from one or two new models combined with a price drop to bring in a whole new market as well as a more established NSO userbase. New hardware can enhance the game, perhaps enabling voice chat more easily out the box.
They have a lot of assets and an engine they can use which might not transition well towards a next gen switch 3-4 years from now, so it would be a smart/efficient use of resources. If it's out next year it'll give Splatoon 3 a similar life to Splatoon 1 and 2 while they prepare for the next gen Splatoon 4.
I guess the issue with including a hunter or a battle royal mode is the amount of work required for such a mode, perhaps in place of a single player campaign like CoD?
Both would require a large-ish map which the engine might not be suited for.
Battle royal with paint would likely be a nightmare with at least 30 different colors unless it's divided in squid squads. Maybe using a water gun for solo?
Cooperative Hunting mode would probably take the place of both single player and salmon run.
You already fight tough enemies together in salmon run so expanding on that concept should work.
As for the story, I don't think the results of the final Splatfest will matter too much. They likely already have the idea in the works and wouldn't let something as volatile as Splatfests ruin it.
Kind of like them knowing that Marie was more popular than Callie so they wouldn't have had them switch places in case Callie came out on top due to wins. (Or they might rig it, dunno)