Topic: Splatoon Is Nintendo's Big Online Gamble

[NWR_Neal]

Online is the major focus of Splatoon, but will restrictions hold it back from greatness?

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/editorial/40216/splatoon-is-nintendos-big-online-gamble

During the recent Splatoon Direct, it sunk in that Splatoon will truly live and die on the strength of its online community when it launches on May 29. Right now, roughly three weeks from release, we’re at a point where what we see is what we get. In the case of Splatoon, what we see is a huge game with the majority of its content requiring online play. It’s a stark contrast to Nintendo’s most recent online-heavy experiences, as the online content in Super Smash Bros. and Mario Kart 8 was only an element of a larger experience that included a larger emphasis on local multiplayer and single player. For Splatoon, the online is the dominant focus as the offline content seems to be nothing more than gravy.

This is new ground for Nintendo, and naturally, that means they are taking the concept of a beta and putting their own spin on it. The Splatoon Global Testfire begins (and ends) this weekend. With only three hour-long chunks spread across May 8 and 9, this demo appears to be more of a server stress test than anything else, especially since the times are designed to be globally friendly. Hopefully, Nintendo will add future Global Testfire times in the coming weeks before Splatoon’s launch, but as of now, nothing has been confirmed. The demo, which you can download on the eShop right now, offers no offline functionality. All it does is play some of the (admittedly rad) music and direct you towards the web browser to check out when the Testfire begins.

The lack of offline demo play drives home how important the online focus of Splatoon is. The single-player content, which looks very fun, is limited to an out-of-the-way area in the hub world and three optional Amiibo figures. The local multiplayer is nothing more than a single one-on-one variant that seems to be more focused on training you and your friend for online play than offering a totally engaging experience.

With the lighter focus on solo and offline play, the online content needs to be spectacular or else the entire experience will fall apart. We’ll get a taste of how the online will work this weekend with the Global Testfire, but at a glance, it seems like a layer of abstraction might harm the online experience at launch. You can pair up with friends, but then you’ll be randomly sorted into teams when you find a full eight-player match. After each match, the teams will shuffle, seemingly nixing any sense of camaraderie you might feel with random players online.

My concern isn’t regarding the lack of voice chat (which is still a major disappointment); rather it’s the lack of companionship. In my time with comparable online games ranging from Halo to Call of Duty, I’ve had great times regardless of voice chat or friends. Part of that was because I’d develop rivalries and friendships with other players by teaming up with them or squaring off against them in a series of matches. That can still happen with Splatoon’s random player swap setup, but it just appears to be another barrier to developing a player-vs.-player relationship. This is the equivalent of Nintendo chewing their online game for players like they were all a bunch of baby birds.

Granted, if the release schedule holds you’ll be able to add custom games with your friends three months after launch, which would remedy the situation to a degree, but given Nintendo’s spotty history for online lobbies and accessibility, that still doesn’t inspire much confidence. Splatoon should be a celebration of Nintendo joining into the online-focused shooter fray, embracing what’s great about online multiplayer on other platforms while implementing their unique and special brand of design and wonder. Splatoon looks gorgeous and, as far as everyone who has played it is concerned, is a heck of a lot of fun, but that might not be enough to carry the game through its weird online restrictions and limitations. I’ll hold out hope that the Global Testfire will go off without a hitch and the final product will be even better than imagined, but right now, all we can do is wait to see if Nintendo’s huge online gamble pays off.

[Lazers]

With the lighter focus on solo and offline play, the online content needs to be spectacular or else the entire experience will fall apart. We’ll get a taste of how the online will work this weekend with the Global Testfire, but at a glance, it seems like a layer of abstraction might harm the online experience at launch. You can pair up with friends, but then you’ll be randomly sorted into teams when you find a full eight-player match. After each match, the teams will shuffle, seemingly nixing any sense of camaraderie you might feel with random players online.

My concern isn’t regarding the lack of voice chat (which is still a major disappointment); rather it’s the lack of companionship. In my time with comparable online games ranging from Halo to Call of Duty, I’ve had great times regardless of voice chat or friends. Part of that was because I’d develop rivalries and friendships with other players by teaming up with them or squaring off against them in a series of matches. That can still happen with Splatoon’s random player swap setup, but it just appears to be another barrier to developing a player-vs.-player relationship. This is the equivalent of Nintendo chewing their online game for players like they were all a bunch of baby birds.

My thoughts exactly. This is going to be a major sticking point for a lot of people (myself included) and they aren't going to take this as lightly as the lack of voice chat where there was an obvious alternative. There's no obvious workaround for this. If you've got two friends with you, what are you going to do? Keep backing out of lobbies until you end up on the same side? They didn't even make it clear whether or not you'd be able to play on the same side with two or three friends in all multiplayer modes after the August update, or if you'd be limited to the one 4 v 4 multiplayer mode if you want to play with friends (which would be atrocious).

It's baffling that they'd do something like this for a game that, yeah, you're basically buying only to play online. Even if it's only till August. You can make a semi-coherent argument for no voice chat (and even that argument would have major flaws), but there's no defending this decision. I'm excited to play the demo tomorrow and on Saturday, but I'm a lot more skeptical about this now than I was last night, which is obviously the opposite impact this Direct should have had.

[Enner]

The odd decision to hold regular friend matchmaking back to August might be an attempt by Nintendo developers to have a more level play field in the first 2-3 months of the game. It's nonsensical to us who have been used to online games that offer the choice to nearly always be on our friends' side. Oh, and I guess there might be a technical reason for the lack of matchmaking that I can't possibly even imagine.


I find Splatoon's bizarre and idiosyncratic approach to online play interesting and amusing, so I'm not too bothered about its oddities. However, it really sucks for others who planned to play a specific way when the game launches.

[Ian Sane]

Splatoon's online setup comes across like the game is from some mirror universe where Nintendo went online when they should have when everyone else did.  Like imagine this as their first go on an online focused game either on the Gamecube or maybe early Wii (assuming other online titles like Mario Kart and SSB had already hit on the Cube).  In that context it's bizarre foibles seem acceptable because there was a time where the conventions of the genre had not been figured out yet.

But this in 2015 and this just comes across like a bunch of out-of-date nonsense from a company that's been living in a bubble.  Yeah it's new ground for Nintendo but WHO GIVES A ****?!  This was also their first HD console which explained why their games took longer to make than expected.  That wasn't an acceptable excuse.  This isn't some hobby.  This is an industry with competitors.  If they offer X, you offer X or better or you fail.  Every one else will gladly go with industry conventions and use good ideas that others already came up with.  Only Nintendo is so insane to insist on discovering everything themselves.  And what benefit to the consumer does that even offer?  Best case scenario is that Nintendo eventually stumbles on the solution everyone else has been using for years.  Same thing, needlessly long and unnecessary journey to get there.  Yee haw.

So Splatoon already looks like a little kids' game, is on an unsuccessful console and features online play by a company a good ten years out of date struggling to re-invent the wheel.  This is going to be a massive bomb regardless of the game's quality.  It's like everything out-of-touch about Nintendo personified in one game.

And the really shitty part is that if Nintendo in 2015 is going to do all this backwards tomfoolery with an online game it means they aren't learning squat!  They're not going to get their act together for the NX if this many years into the Wii U life cycle they're still doing idiotic stuff like this.  A company that knows what went wrong with the Wii U and knows what to do in the future would not be so out-of-touch regarding the online features of this game.  Anyone who knew what they were doing wouldn't be doing this.

[Mop it up]

Unfortunately, I predict the game getting a lot of low review scores due to its lack of features, and most places won't update their reviews once the updates come out. This is probably not a good way to distribute content, though I understand Nintendo need something to put on shelves.

[Lazers]

The odd decision to hold regular friend matchmaking back to August might be an attempt by Nintendo developers to have a more level play field in the first 2-3 months of the game.

They have a ranking system that's supposed to take care of that though and you need to be at a certain level to get into ranked matches. If you want to keep it "even" in the beginning, you can do random teams in the regular battle mode where you have to get up to level 10 (even though I don't agree with that either). There's still no reasonable explanation for why they're doing this in ranked battles though.