Splatoon 3’s Grand Festival marked a stellar send-off for the game’s regular updates

Did you check out the Grand Festival in Splatoon 3? It lived up to its name. While it essentially felt like a normal Splatfest, it centered around a big concert where you could watch the three major bands of the game perform. It was pretty incredible.

Well, as we pick ourselves up out of the dirt and recover from our hangover, Nintendo announced that the Grand Festival marks the end of regular updates for the game. This means that the only updates we see going forward will be patches, and it’s unlikely that new weapons or arenas will be dropped in. This is exactly how “Final Fest” went down in 2019 for Splatoon 2. It was then roughly three years until Splatoon 3 released.

However, Nintendo (by way of the official Splatoon Twitter account), states that Splatoween, Frosty Fest, Spring Fest, and Summer Nights will still continue at their normal times. Also, Big Run (thank goodness), so it’s not like the game is dead dead. It’s just kind of on life support. Or not even that; it’s just coasting.

The end of support has led some to speculate that Splatoon 4 is in the works for the successor to the Switch. I don’t have as much information as anyone else speculating (that is to say, none), but it seems reasonable. When the Switch was preparing to launch, Splatoon 2 was featured heavily in its marketing. Whether or not it’s a launch window game, I doubt that this is the last update we’ve seen for the series.

That kind of means we’ll be going back to Splatoon’s live-service starting point. That means a dearth of content compared to Splatoon 3 at launch, as it slowly gets built up again as a way of retaining its player base. Maybe the strategy will change, however, but I’m not currently betting on it.

In the meantime, Past won Grand Festival against Present and Future. I was on team Present because my therapist always told me that’s where I should focus. Clearly, she was wrong. If you missed the concerts at Grand Festival, apparently, the new Amiibos for Squid Sisters, Off the Hook, and Deep Cuts will allow you to revisit the venue. I recommend it, and will be adding them to cart soon.

Splatoon 3 is available on Switch.