Splatoon relies heavily on its community to keep the game feeling fresh, whether that be through participating in events or just keeping online matchmaking populated. It appears the developers are taking that into account with Splatoon 3, based on data-mined information from yesterday.
The newest entry in the series will launch with a unified version worldwide on Sept. 9, according to dataminer OatmealDome, which hasn’t been the case prior to the upcoming installment in the franchise.
Both the original Splatoon and Splatoon 2 had unique versions of the game released for different regions, meaning North America, Europe, Oceania, Japan, and more had some slight differences. Most of this was simply related to data delivery for events and other content.
With this change, players might use any potential Splatoon 3 DLC without needing to worry about their regional eShop being compatible with their copy of the game. This includes gear unlock codes that were previously region-exclusive. Additionally, players should also be able to play the game in any supported language.
Matchmaking is harder to speculate about without further information, but if this does change how data deliver for events work, Splatfests could finally be run as truly global events rather than limiting that mode to regional matchmaking.
Splatoon and Splatoon 2’s matchmaking outside of events isn’t region-locked. It simply tries to fill lobbies with players that are closer together and several other factors before pulling from greater distances.
As Nintendo continues to release more information about Splatoon 3 and its features, fans can hope to learn more about its online systems prior to launch.
