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Nintendo appears to be using Splatoon 2 for a small story experiment

Nintendo appears to be using Splatoon 2 for a small story experiment

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As reported by Kotaku, it appears Nintendo used a fan event as the inspiration for at least some of the story for the upcoming sequel to its 2015 hit Splatoon.

Last summer, Nintendo asked Splatoon players to align themselves with one of two teams: Callie or Marie, the Squid Sisters who were central to the original game. The poll was part of a Splatfest, a multiplayer event that has players take sides on topics, and represent their choice in the game’s competitive modes. Previous Splatfests had used lighthearted team pairings that were unrelated to Splatoon, like Cats vs. Dogs, Burgers vs. Pizza, and SpongeBob vs. Patrick, so it’s understandable that this final Splatfest got notably more heated. At the end, Marie narrowly won.

Nintendo appears to have recognized the passion of the game’s fanbase, as a new “Prologue” page on the Splatoon 2 website makes reference to the Splatfest and the showdown between the Squid Sisters:

splatoon 2

Nintendo tweeted out a link to the page, which was met by speculation from fans who were involved in Splatfest.

Nintendo announced Splatoon 2 alongside the Switch debut in January, and confirmed the July 21st release date earlier this month. Looking for fan input on much-hyped projects has some precedent in gaming and entertainment more broadly — fans contributed to the revision and creation of major Bioware games like Mass Effect 4 and Dragon Age: Inquisition, for example — but Nintendo is doing something a little different. It’s taking the silly stories that form around a game and making it canon.

It’s not clear how central the Squid Sisters’ rift is to the game’s story, but fans only have a few more months to wait to find out.