When viewed through the lens of Nintendo’s historically cautious and secretive nature, it’s not hard to see why it’s first forays into online Switch play are a re-release and smaller, newer franchises. Why not come out of the gate swinging with, say, a brand new Mario Kart or Smash Bros. game in the console’s first six months instead of Splatoon 2? Esports Group Managing Director Alex Fletcher is similarly flummoxed as to what exactly Nintendo’s thinking is.
“It’s hard to say how they’re looking at this. Is it an entree? Is it an appetizer? What is it?” he asks, rhetorically, when speaking with Twinfinite. “But if I had to guess I’d say that’s exactly it, because one of the great things about esports or competitive gaming is it doesn’t have a strict definition.”
“But it’s also a drawback in that you can mold it into whatever you want it to be, but there also aren’t hard guidelines for how to make something a successful esport. And you could, even if there were a book on this thing, you could check all your checkboxes, but at some point in time the game may not take off as a competitive title for any number of reasons.”
Still, Fletcher thinks there is room in the wide world of esports for Splatoon 2, if a community builds around it. He doesn’t expect Splatoon tournaments to fill stadiums the way Nintendo envisions, but he points out that esports, like regular sports, aren’t a zero sum game. There’s the Super Bowl and the World Cup, but there’s also lacrosse and curling.
“I actually think that Splatoon 2 and games like that, they’re coming from a place of not having a rich esports history,” Fletcher explains. “I think they’re going to play it differently than a League of Legends or Counter-Strike: GO or generally popular esports titles. I say that because, you think about how sports works, and there’s not one type of sport. There are mainstream sports that kind of span the gamut of fan participation, and then you have other sports that are popular in their own right, and I think that’s kind of how games like Splatoon 2 will kind of fall into.
“Not that they can’t become esports titles, it’s just that it doesn’t make as much sense to compare them as an all-or-nothing against a game like League or DOTA or even Counter-Strike.”
Mooney agrees that if Splatoon 2 is going to succeed as an esport, it will likely be in a different form with a very different audience than that which usually springs into people’s minds when they hear the word “esports.”
“It feels to me like Nintendo is pursuing a very specific physical strategy, almost like those Minecraft tournaments in like movie theaters and stuff,” says Mooney. “They’re really trying to go outside the norm in that. I am medium to bullish on the platform being active. I lean bearish on this particular game because it’s Splatoon. The first one was pretty well reviewed. I just think it’s a weird barrier to get someone to buy Switch to play this game.”
