Nintendo is turning off one of Splatoon 2’s most useful online features
Online Lounge feature to end next month
Nintendo has announced the discontinuation of one of Splatoon 2’s most useful online features.
The Online Lounge feature of the Nintendo Switch Online mobile app allows players to send URL links to other users, which then allows them to quickly and easily join matches.
However, as of July 28, 2021, the Nintendo Switch Online app will no longer support the Online Lounge feature, Nintendo announced on Wednesday.
The Switch Online app will continue to allow friends to voice chat, and no other changes to game-specific services will be made “at this time”, it added.
Nintendo released Splatoon 2‘s final significant update, version 5.0, in July 2019. The update signalled the end of the game’s post-launch support, which continued for two years since the Switch shooter’s initial release.
Nintendo posted a thank you video the same month, following the game’s final Splatfest.
Splatoon 2 continues to sell well, with some 12.21 million copies sold to date, according to Nintendo – an increase of over 3 million since its last major update in 2019.
A third Splatoon game, Splatoon 3, is due to release in 2022. The title was shown off in February via a lengthy teaser trailer showing character customisation and detailed environments. No further information was revealed on the project.
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In a follow-up tweet, Nintendo confirmed that the game takes place in “the sun scorched Splatlands” and the new city, Splatsville, which it says is inhabited by “battle-hardened Inklings & Octolings.”
Splatoon 3 introduces various new features to the action-shooter series, Nintendo said, including weapons such as the bow weapon, customisation options and new movement abilities to bring to the returning 4-v-4 Turf War matches.
