Animal Crossing and Splatoon devs split
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- Опубліковано 19 чер 2024
- The latest Nash Weedle rumour has got people buzzing about Animal Crossing but one of the big things holding the franchise back is that they shared a dev team with Splatoon. Could an Animal Crossing New Horizons sequel mean Splatoon 4 is put on the back burner? I've investigated the history of the teams, from Animal Crossing New Leaf and Splatoon through to the present to see what links there really are.
00:00 Eguchi's Teams
00:51 One Team, Two Franchises
02:33 Splatoon 2 X ACNH
04:21 Plan A
06:33 Splatoon 3 X ACNH
08:27 Decisions and Forecast
Question: Can’t they just hire more people to accommodate both series? Or is it one of those “Too many cooks in the kitchen” type things?
Nintendo are very particular about their employees. They hire the best and those with most Nintendo ethos, and then they don’t let them go. And you know as they say “ a small team of A tier employees can run circles around large teams of B and C tier employees”.
It’s one thing to hire people. Then you have to orient them to the Nintendo work culture which takes months and then get them acquainted with the tech that they’re using to make these gsmes
Nintendo is very conservative about about adding employees. They do try and outsource b-tier franchises. See "Advanced Wars," But there results are mixed on that Mings has some good videos about that.
@@NoblemuminSomeone should go tell this to the gaming companies laying off everyone
@@Noblemumin I understand. I’m just saying they shouldn’t purposefully limit themselves just to output results that would’ve been better with more hands on deck. Like, maybe have a bigger A Team that can do the tasks without needing to sacrifice a lot.
In a sea of Nintendo rumour channels, it truly is refreshing to come across a channel that takes an active journalistic approach delivering interesting takes on the Nintendo landscape. Keep up the great content 👏
Thank you - I really appreciate it!
I feel like Nintendo's plans for New Horizons were set in stone and "finished" long before the release of the game. They likely did not think it would go on to be the fastest-selling Nintendo Switch game of all time and the best-selling game of all time in Japan. I know there's a very passionate fanbase for the Splatoon series in Japan but it wouldn't make sense to *not* throw everything they have into the next installment of Animal crossing (even if that means cannibalizing the Splatoon team). It used to be only Mario and Zelda that could sell consoles enough to be released within the first year of the console's launch, but now it's proven that Animal Crossing is a contender and the next installment in the series could very well be seen within the first year of the Switch successor's launch.
I think this is an excellent point and explains a lot about ACNH.
I don't think we are seeing Splatoon 4 until the second year of Switch 2. Maybe later. AC might just come first due to superior sales, as well as the alternating cycle
Yeah, Splatoon 2 followed up 1 very quickly but that's because the wii u was a completely different console than the Switch. I could see a smaller Splatoon spinoff backed by a different team happening between 3 and 4.
@birdflox1337 don't see what kind of spinoff they could do with splatoon. Honestly I wouldn't mind if the update support for Splatoon 3 lasts longer, maybe with another DLC.
Actually after just posting this comment, they could do a rock Band like spin-off of Splatoon
@@JamesTheFoxeArt they could do plenty of things with their worldbuilding imo. A rhythm game, a life Sim that lets you organize your home and live in a city, a story-oriented RPG, a Mario Party-style party game, maybe lean into the platforming aspects of the storymode and make a fast-paced platformer kinda like Sonic Adventure but with the squid swimming mechanics...
@@birdflox1337 that just seems like stuff that could be in the splatoon game itself tho in base or dlc, and a life sim game and a online battle game just seems like unnecessary competition inside the franchise, or one of them gets completely abandoned
Well, that's my opinion, to me the main splatoon stuff is the singleplayer and lore, the online being an extra (tho it's at the same time tangled with the lore, like the finalfests)
I don't think the Splatoon community is expecting Splatoon 4 to be a Switch 2 launch title, it feels too early. I'm more so hoping that Splatoon 3 will get ported or be backwards compatible with the new system and seasonal content updates and limited time events will be extended for a bit longer past Sept (like they did for Splatoon 2). Side Order DLC just being dropped after some delays and the addition of a new Splatfest feature that we're just getting to use for the first time next week lead me to believe the content extension is real. Otherwise they added that feature for at most 5 or 6 Splatfests?
This was my thought as well. I'm hoping/coping for a Mario kart booster pack type update on the new system, arriving a bit later but giving maybe 1 more year of new/returning stages and proper 3rd kits for every weapon.
I completely agree with you, looking at how late they added side order and fizzbangs it seems strange to incorporate those things for only the final few months. And looking at the competitive side I would be surprised if Nintendo was interested in continuing to support tournaments like Koshien and Worlds if it meant digging out the "old" system. Doesn't seem like the kind of attention they would want to be getting for one of their largest esport segments when they are trying to advertise their shiny new system. Hence why I'm leaning hard into back compat with a big content update.
Please for the love of all that is good Do not Encourage Nintendo to rush their development to release unfinished subpar games We really don't need an animal crossing game and Splatoon game within the first 5 seconds of the switch 2s release date Cause then all the games are just going to feel like the recent game freak pokemon games they end up being terrible and then people end up crying about how bad the games Cause they keep rushing I honestly want Splatoon 4 to be a little different And I don't want any unfinished games
Yeah, I love Splatoon but leave the first year to like... Donkey Kong or something, a big Zelda remake, Splatoon needs more time to keep things fresh.
We at least need Animal Crossing on day 1, and continued DLC support for the lifespan of the console.
I feel like it's too soon for splatoon 4 too
I agree that Splatoon 4 could benefit from taking a step forward but to be honest I was looking more logistically. However, a Splatoon every ~4 years seems reasonable to me.
As a Splatoon fan, I agree. I really hope that Nintendo does give it the time that it needs. However, given Splatoon 3's update history, I do think that it could benefit from both more time *and* more developers. It seems like, especially with Side Order taking over part of the team, they've had a rough time keeping up with the standards of the previous games. I hope that Splatoon 4's development cycle is healthier than 3's, and I really hope they don't rush things just to release it on day 1 of the Switch 2.
Only discovered this channel recently while looking for Switch 2 news. All I can say is I love your Work, it’s a rare case of genuine excellence Switch journalism.
I look forward to your excellent and original research videos. So refreshing and informative.
Thank you so much!
Thank you mate. You are doing some good work.
Take it form someone who hates the constant stream of clickbait rumour nonscience where a typo or fake tweetis presented as some genuine information leaked out by a Nintendo insider. that has to be spoken about as a fact for 8+ minutes. It's genuinely great to see videos where some hard done research educates you and makes you feel more informed@@nintendoforecast
This is god-tier content. I can't express how much I love this channel!
I'd say that, as much as I'd like to have dedicated teams for each game, we could be risking the games losing their charm by forcing said move. That's what differentiates Nintendo from many developers: they follow creativity, not (just) money.
Thank you! And it's a good point about the risk of dedicated teams.
I heavily doubt both titles will be there on switch two at launch.
I concur.
Splatoon 3 is still fairly new, so definitely not getting 4 for a while. A New Animal Crossing, maybe.
Don't forget that Splatoon 2 came out only 2 years after Splatoon 1. Splatoon 3 will be 2 years old this year@@jadaw644
I agree - I'm talking broad launch window which includes up to 2 years after (though on Switch/3DS they waited around 3 for AC).
One thing I'd like to note is that among the Splatoon community, the third game is seen as more lackluster in how it delivers it content even if its launch has been largely successful. The devs certainly gained experience as seen with better balancing of certain mechanics and such but it just feels as if they haven't got enough resources to match with content that has been put out during Splatoon 2
Personally I only began playing the Splatoon series with Splatoon 3 in late 2022 but ever since I've been hooked so I can't say much however that is what I've heard and I can also to a degree confirm considering some content feels as if it should've been released much sooner. For example, datamines suggest that the Side Order DLC has been delayed by 6 months with its original intended launch being on the game's anniversary in 2023.
Either way, if you're interested in a topic idea about exclusively Splatoon if you consider digging deeper for more information about what I've mentioned, I recommend looking at how Splatoon is the only major mainline Nintendo title (I.e. among the Marios, Zeldas and Animal Crossings) that sells more copies in Japan than worldwide and trying to analyse why that's the case.
Either way, love your content! Looking forward to seeing more.
Hmm... that's a really interesting idea about the Japanese v international reception. Not yet sure how I'd even start researching that but I'll give it some thought. As for Splatoon 3, I also didn't get as into it as Splatoon 2 and it feels much more sparse. Still a great game but didn't wow me anew. And thanks for the kind words!
I think I remember reading an interview or something where the Nintendo employee said that they don't really have trinkets on their desks, because they don't have set teams. A lot of people parot the same thing about the AC and Spla dev teams being the same, but I was curious how much overlap there actually was, so this video was quite helpful to show that there isn't that much overlap. It's not like someone who designs furniture for AC just sits and waits for work, they will be put on a different projects, whether that's brainstorming for the next AC or working on something completely different.
Animal Crossing takes more time to make and can't be renewed as often as Splatoon.
So I think that we'll stay on a pattern of two Splatoon games between two Animal Crossing games.
Splatoon take 2 years to make, last one was out at end of 2022 so there's a great possibility that Splatoon 4 will launch next year in the first months of the Switch 2, like Splatoon 2 in 2017.
Yes, this sounds likely.
i doubt it. an enhanced port of splatoon 3 is more likely
Did I miss it or did you not mention that the creator of Animal Crossing is also the creator of Splatoon? Also it should be noted that they've reused assets from New Horizons in Splatoon 3 recently for the DLC Side Order (the polygon fish in the backgrounds)
..isn’t Eguchi credited w/ac’s creation? And Nogami Splatoon?
Nogami and Eguchi are both in much more senior roles now - producer and general producer respectively so for this video's focus on whether they could logistically support development of both concurrently I didn't mention it. But yes, I should really have discussed it in the section on "Should They" as obviously have the senior people's attention split could be an issue. Great comment.
Imo we don't need a new game in either series every year that just kills the creativity of the games.
They don't have that, just updates, animal crossing updates have stopped while splatoon is still getting updates with new maps, weapons, music, maybe also a new sub or special, clothes and new cards for the in-game card game, every update, also a splatfest random times (tho that's probably easy to set up if it's not a special one, give colors to each team, a name for each team, and dialogue for the idols)
@@mariotheundyingthe only reason splatoon is getting updates is because it's live service, they stop this year whereas splatoon 2's stopped after a much longer time. Splatoon 3 relies on updates to stay alive but animal crossing honestly doesn't need them other than patches.
@@hellohaveagoodday I've actually heard the opposite tho, even complains that animal crossing new horizons still is unfinished, and it didn't need to rely on updates at all, it could've just came with everything day 1 and then add extra stuff if they feel like it, while splatoon people always play it, animal crossing was kinda like a live service too, poor South hemispheres players too, winter update in summer and summer update in winter, spring update in fall and fall update in spring, that's just dumb
@@mariotheundying I agree but I also think that was similar to what I was saying lol, maybe I didn't word it correctly. Animal crossing was treated like live service when it really shouldn't have been. New horizons is definitely not finished (could just be bad) but the updates thing shouldn't have been there in the first place yknow?
Splatoon works fine with updates and I wish the live service would go in a bit longer but animal crossing just felt like they shipped an unfinished product and fixed the cracks later
Completely agree and I don't think that will happen. My expectation is that the current pace with be roughly the same - a Splatoon every 4 years and an AC every generation - but the greater team size allows their dev cycles to remain independent of each other and potentially for them to expand the post-launch support if they wished to do so.
Your videos are ridiculously well researched, this is all VERY impressive.
Your videos are so good man. You have a completely different angle on speculation than others
Thank you! I really appreciate the comment!
Love the content. Your channel is gonna blow up big time
Loved this video, thanks for this great content
I love how Pepe Silvia videos are 😂 Don't stop with the essays! No idea how true they could be but I like the armchair analysis nevertheless.
Nintendo: we need a game that can be played competitively at a tournament level.
Smash bros: hey dad
Nintendo: ... squids and guns
The difference is that Smash Bros was NEVER made with that philosophy in mind.
Look at me I made fun of Nintendo I'm very cool
Nintendo will probably never promote SSB as a competitive tourney game. Especially after it was found that molesters were prevalent in the FGC of SSB.
@@user-be3qc7re9obut it's a great opportunity. it sucks how hostile nintendo is to smash competitive
@yoursnatchedweave641
You mean the same community that has Sexual Misconduct and shut down Panda Global for no justified reason that ruined Sponsorships for Millions outside of Smash?
Let's not down paly splatoon 3 sales numbers
He downplayed it?
he didnt. he said that it dropped off after the first few months, which is true. this is probably because of the egregious seasonal updates leaving the game content-dry for months at a time (compared to the previous splatoon games making you wait only like a week for new stuff)
fyi, as far as we know, splatoon 2 still has higher sales numbers than splatoon 3
@@jubbsticksmusic Doesn't literally every game have sales numbers drop after launch, as most of the people who would be interested in the game have already bought it?
@@jubbsticksmusicI thought we already knew Splatoon 3 surpassed 2 a while ago?
Tbh i think were gonna get splatoon 4 before we get a new animal crossing. Splatoon is one of those franchises you want to put out as fast as possible on a new console since its a perfect game to promote online services and it has a competitive scene. You don’t want competitive splatoon players to still be playing splatoon 3 on the og switch for multiple years after the switch 2 has already come out. You want those competitive players to transition over to the new console as fast as possible. Whereas animal crossing is a game franchise were individual games can last for a lot longer. You don’t need a new animal crossing game every few years since the games themselves are designed to be played for a very long time. So it makes a lot more sense for anew animal crossing game to come out a lil bit later in the new console lifecycle (3rd to 4rth year).
Love this and the pikmin video! It would be great if you could do something similar for the mario kart and arms team, or the chances of rhythm heaven returning despite warioware last year 🧐
Thanks! I will be looking at the MK team in due course. Hadn't thought about this with Rhythm Heaven. Because Wario Ware is at Intelligent Systems, I hadn't considered that one could block the other - I'll investigate.
I really love these videos! I have one question tho: What are the criterias you have when you determine the "forecast likelihood percentage" you present in every video? Would be nice to know where they're coming from
Isn’t that what the video is all about explaining to us how the percentage is forecast.
@@paintfatpurple7394 Yeah, but how did they get to the number "90" specifically is what I was asking.
Great question. The logic is hopefully set out in each video but I try to band them into 10%, 30%, 50%, 70% and 90% predictions. Over time (and eventually I'll review this but a lot of them are long-range) we should see the 10% predictions being right ~10% of the time, the 30% ones ~30% of the time etc. This is to calibrate to be more/less cautious in each band over time. Of course, even with the 90% predictions I could still be wrong. As for this video, I could have broken down the 90% one more but it was considering the frequency of Splatoon, the benefit of Splatoon 2 early on for Switch, the need for evergreens to arrive early etc. Even the 90% calls will be wrong 1 time in 10 though.
You realy feel how New Horizons needed more time, not just the DLC but even the original game...or just a bigger team
To be honest... I kinda don't want another Animal Crossing so soon. New Horizons felt so stale after less than a year, while I still play Splatoon. It's probably because its an almost exclusively online game and side order was released recently... but uh... I kinda prefer Splatoon
I really do not see why they cannot handle updating one whilst simultaneously developing the other. Both Animal Crossing New Horizons and Splatoon 3 have clearly suffered from this alternating update cycle system they have been using.
Hopefully they don't repeat New Horizons but considering how successful it was I worry about the next installment being just as barren upon release.
I believe we'll have to wait a while for any new entries of these games.
The content within Splatoon 3 feels as if they made everything longer to get, so people would have something to do. Animal Crossing has the advantage of taking forever to do anything(if you don't time travel).
My guess right now,
Splatoon will be 2027,
Animal Crossing will be....2029?
Thank you!
Its entirely speculation on my part, but I do still think we will get some kind of Splatoon content early in the switch successor's life, probably as a content expansion to 3 though. After the success of the Switch, I feel like one of the hurdles Nintendo is going to face is convincing people why they need a Switch 2 when they already have a Switch. Same thing the SNES and more recently the Wii U struggled with. The more power and more games argument works for the core audience, but not necessarily for the casuals.
For this reason, with Splatoons success especially in Japan, I would be surprised if they suddenly either stopped offical tournaments such as Koshien and Worlds. I would be even more surprised though if they asked for these tournaments to be held exclusively on outdated hardware. Running the tournaments that are at the center of Nintendo's esports "push" using the systems that are not the ones they are actively trying to sell seems counterproductive to their advertising efforts. So at worst I think we will at least get a port or backwards compatibility of Splat 3, but I feel like that could also align with a content drop to peak interest in an otherwise dated live service game by that point.
And everything I said here applies to Smash as well, though that may be just a port/back compat. Hopefully some kind of content but Im not holding my breath with how ceremonious Sora was and the sheer amount of content we got over years.
Hmm... Interesting thoughts, hadn't thought of the esports angle.
This thankfully shouldn't be too much of an issue in the immediate future, since S3 might get a content extension to make up for the next console's delay. The Animal Crossing games have been less demanding because their updates are "automatic" and require less supervision. It would not be difficult to put out an Animal Crossing game early and keep it maintained, especially if they take the NH model of slow, small updates.
I think both groups of fans want a content extension of S3 instead of a new entry so quickly, and Animal Crossing fans simply want a new game much more.
I wonder what will splatoon 4 do differentiate from 3, at least if it's a lunch title. It feels too soon and if the successor has retrocompatibility, we'd have 3 splatoons on a single system... This could negatively impact sales for the newest.
I also can't imagine how Nintendo will handle the release year. If it's like, 4 games on launch, then 1 per month onwards, that's 16 games... Nintendo has done great, but not that much
they consistently did 4-6 per year until 2023 so im sure they will do that again
Splatoon 4 most likely will be up to us, the finalfest would have 3 teams and that means 3 directions where the splatoon franchise could go in, and it would probably be vastly different each one
Well they confirmed splatoon 3 is the end of Squidbeak’s story so there’s that
It seems Nintendo really just needs to hire more people.
I understand that takes a lot of training, getting them used to projects, and getting oriented with Nintendo and its culture.
But isnt that a short term penalty for a long term gain and investment? Nintendo is growing and youre going to have to keep up with the demand. Its better to start now, so that later on youll have the team and know hows when demand is high.
They hire new graduates like every year. Do you really think they don't expand and hire new people? "Nintendo should do the thing they're currently doing."
All that matters, it’s all about priorities. Never forget that games take time… and therefore should age like a fine wine (or a distinct cheese.)
Not to mention Smash has really questionable netcode and could benefit a lot from being more like Splatoon, that seems like by far the best online Nintendo game. Hopefully they have time to make the new Smash (if it ever comes out) actually good to play online 😂🎉
splatoon 3 also has really questionable netcode. online isn't nintendos forte lol
@@yoursnatchedweave641 Netcode isn't even a thing.
Splatoon 4 is the first chance for Splatoon to have a non rushed development since the series is now a household name and hasn’t much to prove
Just hope Nintendo takes advantage of that rather than another rushed game with tons of recycled content
Splatoon 3 should have been the first one to be like so, with Splatoon 2 being so successful and 3 releasing so much later compared to 2 with 1, and to be fair there are a lot of improvements in 3, but then there are so many baffling choices in 3 that really make it feel like they didn't fully implement everything they could have...
Splatoon is definitely not a household name (thought animal crossing now is after New Horizons). There is no reason they couldn’t have put more effort into Splatoon 3 updates instead of rushing to move on like they rushed to move on from Splatoon 2 and Animal Crossing New Horizons. They wouldn’t need to rush if they properly updated both games but that’s the hard way out.
@@Jme_hde i dont feel like they rushed to end splatoon 2 tho, and if so it probably was to start working on the next game because they wanted to make a new one (especially with them making the splatoon canonical date being linked to the real world's date, just in post-human era), and for that they need a theme for the game which is dependent on the playerbase, whoever wins the finalfest will have a major effect on the next game, so yeah the lore, style, and everything else really depends on players
Edit: maybe a way to fix this is make a finalfest but after that still support the game, like the "between years" of the games, maybe just with small stuff tho, and splatfests, until it just stops and splatoon 4 is ready to be announced
What was rushed about it?
Like jeez people, don't just make weird stuff up.
@@Jme_hde Of course Splatoon is a household name.
I love splatoon and animal crossing
Me too!
@@nintendoforecast niceee but I gotta get splatoon soon , its too expensive for me needing switch online…
Splatoon uses P2P connections, how can the servers shut down?
Matchmaking Servers.
They will in April 9, which is why it's important to spread the work of Pretendo, just like it was for Wimmfi
Eguchi has nothing to do with EPD 5, what are you even talking about? He never was involved with it since epd era. It was nogami and since 2019 it's kyogoku. In this premise alone you already are wrong
Eguchi is still the general producer attached to EPD5 games - he's still "involved" heavily. Kyogoku is a manager but has no involvement in Splatoon 3. Fair that I could have talked more about Nogami.
@@nintendoforecast My point is that Eguchi isnt the manager of epd5. While he still is general producer of the games, hes not part of the group anymore, as eguchi himself is on the position of deputy general manager of the entire epd, being part of much more than epd5 and being involved in epd internal and external titles overall. anyway i just think you phrased it wrongly because he still has invovlement but not in the way you said, as it kind of make it like hes still the manager
Miyamoto cannibalized AC from the start. AC has never been a priority for them. It only stuck around because of 3DS support while the wii U went without a mainline game and Splatoon had a big debut. There's still a huge amount of gutted New Leaf content that was left out even after the final update meanwhile Splatoon gets multiple rounds of dlc and dedicated dev support. AC was a 2000s era fluke that they'll begrudgingly make because it will sell systems
Wait, I'm confused by this take. How can a series be a fluke if it's even more successful now than it was with its initial entries?
@@VMan776 The original US release was given the royal treatment by US localizers (Nintendo Treehouse) and it impressed the Japanese so much they decided to re-release it in Japan as Animal Forest e+. Had that not happened the series would more than likely be buried by now. That was more than 20 years ago in 2002. Since then localization has been a joke with flagship titles like Fire Emblem: Blazing Blade (2003) and Mother 3 (2006), Starfy (2003), Doshin the Giant (2002) never getting a release despite fan outcry. Success doesn't mean that it's well liked. Similar to how a lot of musical acts resent their unexpected hits.
What the hell are you even talking about? Like, are you making up scenarios in your mind to get angry about?
Just call up Monolithsoft to help out with either one lol.
I'm sure they will as Monolith are credited on Splatoons 2 and 3 and ACNH as well.
@@nintendoforecastThe thought of having the people that made animal crossing and the xenoblade team working on Splatoon sounds like a fever dream.
Sign me up
Is there something Monolith can't do?
@@lemonquacklol They are separate teams, since Monolith has two, one in Kyoto and one in Tokyo.