A little less than a year ago from the time of this writing, Nintendo announced Splatoon Raiders, a single-player-focused spin-off of the popular multiplayer series. It was seemingly the natural next step from the single-player campaigns available in the mainline entries players had already enjoyed, and today, through the Nintendo Today! app, Nintendo revealed that it'll be arriving exclusively for Nintendo Switch 2 later this year on July 23, 2026.
The release date reveal came at the tail end of a new gameplay trailer that showed off plenty of combat and the world players will get to explore with a character they customize to kick things off. After that, the trailer gets right into showing how you'll explore a large cluster of islands called the Spirhalite Islands, collect resources to update your weapons and gadgets between a melee and a ranged arsenal, and rack up a score count among the waves of enemies you'll splat.
We also got a bit of a tease towards some special abilities not available in the multiplayer games, a look at some of the characters you'll meet along the way as you jump from island to island.
Of course, details on whatever narrative this game will follow are still unclear, if the story even is a major focus for the game. The trailer's lack of story info and the description simply calling out that you'll "take on hordes of aggressive sea creatures called Salmonids in search of treasure" don't exactly add up to much of a narrative emphasis.
But it'll clearly be a lot of fun to take all of the core mechanics that make Splatoon fun to play and as popular as it is and apply them in a PvE semi-open-world situation. Hopefully that's enough to carry Splatoon Raiders without the game getting repetitive before you reach credits.
At least we now know when it'll all 'splat' out, and can look forward to swimming into Splatoon Raiders on July 23, 2026.
About the author: David has been writing about videogames, technology, and culture since 2020, with a focus on reporting daily news across multiple publications, including GameDaily.Biz, GameSkinny, and PlayStation Universe before joining Wccftech in 2025. David started contributing as Canada/US reporter for Wccftech's gaming section in 2025. Besides being up-to-date on the industry's movements, he loves interviewing developers, reviewing games, and writing intricate essays about the symbolism and layered meanings to be found in rich narratives as he's done for publications like GamesIndustry.Biz, LostInCult, and others. Outside of games he loves movies, music, theatre, his hometown, and his family, though not necessarily in that order.
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