Nintendo is continuing its trend of baiting Splatoon fans with teasers going into 2020, it seems. The official Japanese Twitter account for Splatoon put out a new piece of art for the New Year, much like it did for Christmas. Also like the Christmas art, the new piece of art is leading some Splatoon fans to wonder if there's more to the image than meets the eye. Some even believe that Nintendo is teasing Splatoon 3, though if it is then it isn't explicit.
The image at first seems like a simple New Year message, like Nintendo's Christmas image. It says "Have A Great 2020," with the words written out in golden stars in the sky and the year written out by Salmonids using golden salmon eggs. If that was the entirety of the message then nothing more would need to be said. However, there definitely is more to the image. In the water below the message, a reflection shows in big golden letters "S. O. S."
Closer inspection of the letter shows that the full reflected message is even larger, reading "Save Our Salmon" or "Save Our Salmons." At skin depth, this message may just be a reference to Splatoon 2's Salmon Run mode. In the mode, Splatoon players farm salmon eggs from Salmonid creatures in a horde mode-style experience. Save Our Salmon could be a message from the Salmonid asking for their eggs to be saved. It might just be a fun reference for fans and nothing more.
However, with Splatoon 2 post-launch support likely over, Splatoon fans aren't interested in friendly messages. They want news about what's next for Splatoon. The somewhat mysterious message from Nintendo offers the perfect opportunity to speculate about the future. Fans are hoping it may be a hint about Splatoon 3, or another content update for Splatoon 2. Perhaps the Salmonids will play a much larger role in Splatoon 3 like how the Octolings did in Splatoon 2.
Like with Nintendo's Christmas teaser, it's most likely that Nintendo is just having fun while wishing fans a happy holiday. Neither holiday message explicitly teases forthcoming content announcements. But there is one thing that fans can take acknowledge is promising: most franchises that don't have upcoming content don't do holiday messages. Their development teams move on to something else. That Nintendo continues to post Splatoon-related at all messages is promising news, and that may be the best evidence that Splatoon 3 is in the works.
Splatoon 2 is available now exclusively on Nintendo Switch.