As with any game developer, Nintendo's fans keep checklists of franchises that they need updates on. At the start of 2021, those checklists were uncharacteristically long. That's because of the long drought of Nintendo Directs and other announcements that marked 2020. Fortunately, things are looking up for Nintendo fans, because it's getting back into Nintendo Directs and starting to roll out announcements more frequently. One sign of hope for 2021 was the announcement of Splatoon 3, the long-awaited continuation of Nintendo's young but beloved third-person shooter franchise. Splatoon 3 looks like it'll finally arrive sometime next year, and fans are already learning a lot about new customization features, weapon types, and setting details.
One thing that fans are still wondering about is game modes. Splatoon 2 introduced some new ways to play Splatoon, like the basketball spinoff called Clam Blitz, so it only seems logical that Nintendo wants to add more new game modes. If this shooter is going to get a new game mode, what are the odds that it gets a battle royale mode? Battle royales continue to experience unprecedented popularity, and seem firmly cemented as a new pillar of competitive multiplayer games. It could be that Nintendo feels pressure to adapt to the state of the industry and try to fit Splatoon 3 into the battle royale craze.
Battling With Battle Royales
There's lots of successful multiplayer shooters out there that Nintendo has to compete with. Interestingly, a lot of them happen to be part of the battle royale family. Fortnite continues to be a major influence after contributing to the franchise's rise to power a few years ago. Newer entries like Call of Duty: Warzone and Apex Legends are finding success too, competing with Fortnite via all kinds of unique mechanics that make them stand out from their fellow BRs. All of these games are extremely profitable, which could entice Nintendo to try to cash in with a new Splatoon mode.
If a battle royale mode does appear, it might not even be an interest in profit. Nintendo might feel that it has no other choice than to conform to what so much of the industry is doing in order to come up. Anytime a multiplayer shooter gets announced nowadays, fans wonder whether or not the developers will add a battle royale mode. If Nintendo does cave to that kind of pressure, it's hard to say whether Splatoon 3 will be helped or harmed. Splatoon purists might consider it a betrayal of the franchise's original concept, while new players more familiar with traditional shooters might find a BR game mode a good transition into playing the core modes of Splatoon.
Nintendo's Consistency
Nintendo doesn't seem like the kind of company to cave to this specific trend, however. It has a history of marching to the beat of its own drum and making AAA games that are different in tone, genre, and more when compared to the rest of the AAA market. For instance, much of the video game industry has started looking into live-service games. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is about the closest Nintendo has come to developing a live-service game, and even then, its microtransactions are limited to DLC characters and costume pieces for Miis. That's far from a live-service game like League of Legends or Overwatch supporting itself with lootboxes and deluges of character cosmetics. Nintendo likes to keep to its traditions instead of adapting to the industry.
It also has to be said that Splatoon really doesn't lend itself well to the battle royale model. It's hard to imagine a battle royale in Splatoon 3 that keeps the game's crucial elements, like teams covering the stage in their ink color and then swimming in the ink they've put down. Maybe ink traversal would be just what makes Splatoon 3's hypothetical battle royale interesting, but ultimately, it seems more likely that the game mode would feel out of place. Ultimately, it's impossible to say for sure what Nintendo has planned for Splatoon 3 until it says so itself. Maybe at E3 Nintendo will put any debate about a battle royale in Splatoon 3 to rest.
Splatoon 3 releases in 2022 for the Nintendo Switch.