Nintendo of Europe has revealed that Splatoon has sold over 1 million units within Europe.
#Splatoon has sold 1,000,000 copies in Europe! The game’s Art Director Mr Inoue made this drawing to thank you all! pic.twitter.com/bGhmVwxYZA
— Nintendo of Europe (@NintendoEurope) March 9, 2016
To celebrate the occasion, Splatoon‘s art director, Seito Inoue, made the celebration illustation that is this post’s cover image. As of December 31, 2015, Nintendo announced that Splatoon had sold 4 million units worldwide. This broke down to 1.37 million units in Japan and 2.7 million units in US and Europe. As our source notes, it seems well on its way to selling five million units.
Nintendo is not resting on its laurels, as the first of two promised updates released in the US yesterday, and in Japan today. This first update brings several meaningful changes to help balance the metagame across stages, matchmaking, and other elements.
Here’s what the next Splatoon update changes:
- Moray Towers has the same layout in Turf Wars and in the Splat Zones. Arowana Mall’s layout in Turf Wars is also identical in the Splat zones with one big exception; the grates connecting the high platforms have been removed.
- Weapons will now be considered when assigning teams during matchmaking in Ranked Battle. Ranked Battle will also no longer pit players one rank below each other, such as S+ and S players, or S and A+ players.
- When a team wins after opponents logged out of the game, they will lose points proportional to how long they benefited from it.
- Splatfests have received major changes. Splatfest Power replaces the Vibe Meter, based on Ranked Battle rank. Splatfest Power changes based on Splatfest performance, and players with higher Splatfest Power at the end of each match gets a higher increase in power. Of course, teams that average a higher Splatfest Power Level will also get more Splatfest Points when they win. Splatfest matchmaking will also be based on Splatfest Power.
- Finally, some Gear Abilities have been changed. Nintendo did not elaborate on the details.
