Nintendo has made the big announcement about the return of Splatoon eSports.
The Nintendo Vs. Twitter account shared a tweet confirming the launch of the Splatoon 3 North American League with this message:
It might be a good time to start warming up your Splatoon 3 skills! Stay tuned for more!
Nintendo has had a unique dilemma when it comes to Splatoon. Even when the game debuted on the Wii U, it was clear that the online multiplayer shooter had huge potential to become Nintendo’s entry into the competitive and esports community.
The dilemma is how to do it exactly right. While Splatoon has great crossover appeal, the game’s and Nintendo’s family friendly presentation clashes with the often-controversial nature of esports and competitive video game communities. This came to a head in last year’s Splatoon 3 World Championship 2024, when Nintendo had to vacate the grand championship win of esports team Jackpot over community guideline violations.
Nintendo briefly hit pause on the Splatoon esports events they themselves held, as well as their Nintendo Live events, because their employees received very real threats in those events. Thankfully, authorities found the alleged perpetrator in April 2024, but that surely gave Nintendo pause on how to hold their live events as well.
As of right now, Nintendo is in a good position for a fresh start. Their Switch 2 console just broke records as the new best selling game console at launch, and they just announced their big spinoff Splatoon Raiders. They could start tournaments not only for Splatoon 3, but also Splatoon Raiders.
Their bigger concerns in the long-term surround how to manage their community. As has emerged recently, this means balancing how to properly hold players and teams accountable to a reasonable degree, as well as keeping the community safe for everyone involved. There’s extra pressure on Nintendo to do this right compared to other games and their communities, because of their all-ages audience.
Thus far, Nintendo has seen more success with their Splatoon Koshien tournaments in their native Japan, and in that case, they have managed to keep tight control over that community, to their benefit. Nintendo can’t stop American gamers from launching their own independent Splatoon player communities, but by virtue of their support, they can steer that community towards what they want it to become.
At the end of the day, Nintendo makes their games in such a way that it isn’t reliant on esports to justify its existence. But Nintendo launched their Nintendo VS initiative for a reason, and if they get their esports right, it’ll make that part of gaming bigger, and even break through the mainstream.
