Splatoon 4 has been seemingly confirmed by Nintendo

This week Nintendo is launching Splatoon Raiders, the first spin-off game since the series debuted in 2015. It’s a single-player game that offers co-op as well to play with up to 3 other people. In a recent “Ask the Developer” interview, Nintendo has seemingly confirmed a Splatoon 4 is on the way.

Nintendo mentions in the interview that it has no plans to go away from the competitive gameplay that Splatoon is known for. When asked for a reason to why they made Splatoon Raiders, producer Seita Inoue mentioned that after making three mainline games, there was a desire to create a spin-off to cater to fans who aren’t as into the competitive gameplay.

“We’ve been going full speed ahead for over 11 years since the series’ launch, developing and updating three titles along the way. We thought it might be interesting to create something with a slightly different approach to gameplay, where you can really savor the action on your own.

Splatoon isn’t just about competitive play; it also includes cooperative modes like Salmon Run and a single-player Story Mode. So, one of our motivations for developing this game was our desire to create a new entry point into the series by releasing these non-competitive elements not just as a secondary feature, but as a standalone spin-off.

That said, we will continue to develop competitive gameplay going forward. That’s why we developed this game as a spin-off and not as ‘Splatoon 4′.”

Now, Nintendo didn’t say Splatoon 4 is coming anytime soon, but to mention it in the interview like that it seems like the plan is to continue the mainline series.

It’s too early to tell when Splatoon 4 would be coming out for Switch 2. Splatoon 3 was a great success for Nintendo as it sold close to 12 million units and within its first three days it had sold over 3 million copies.

Splatoon Raiders releases July 23 exclusively for Nintendo Switch 2.