Some players have poured hundreds of hours into Splatoon 2. Thankfully, Nintendo recently revealed that all of that hard work won’t be wasted when fans boot up Splatoon 3. Instead, they’ll be able to transfer their save data and reap big rewards in the process.
Nintendo unleashed a torrent of info about what’s new in Splatoon 3 during its latest Direct yesterday, including the idol trio Deep Cut and Tricolor Turf War Splatfests, but one of the party shooter’s coolest features is actually about its predecessor, Splatoon 2. Players who have already played the previous game will be able to transfer some of their data to the new one, leapfrogging new players in rank and matchmaking.
A fan spotted the feature on Nintendo’s website and long-time players immediately started celebrating:
The perks for transferring save data include three Gold Sheldon Licenses that can be used to immediately unlock main weapons no matter the player’s level, as well as being able to play Anarchy Battles from the very start. Splatoon 3 will also carry over some portion of players’ rank in Splatoon 2, and matchmake them against more skilled players. It’s a smart way to ease the transition between games and also a nice way to recognize players who are already veterans of the series.
Online multiplayer shooters are more like platforms than individual games. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, for example, has been updated for a decade now. Games like Call of Duty, on the other hand, get replaced with sequels every year. We’re already seeing some fatigue with this in Overwatch 2, which seems for now like more of an upgrade of Overwatch 1 than a completely new game. But on the bright side, Blizzard is still letting players carry over all of their paid collectibles from the first game.
Splatoon 3 is in a similar boat, with many of its core maps and modes returning from the previous game. And unlike Overwatch 2, whose PVP mode is free-to-play, It will be a full-priced sequel. It still might not have in-game voice chat, but at least Splatoon pros will be able to unlock their favorite pair of Dualies as soon as they get started.