When Nintendo unveiled some early release dates and windows, we couldn’t help but think about the gap in between The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. WITH WEAPON still in a vague ‘spring’ window and a number of third-party retail releases coming around the same time or later than MK8, there’s a real gap here – LEGO City: Undercover bucks the trend a bit by arriving in early April.
This is all understandable, to some extent, as it makes no sense to go big with new releases in stores when there is almost no hardware stock in some major territories, and demand still outstrips supply in countries like the US. The assumption is that Nintendo will deliver a decent amount of restock by the end of April as a second wave to carry the system into the summer.
The eShop fills the gap for early adopters, of course, and Nintendo’s gap-filling strategy includes Splatoon 2 Global Testfire this weekend. It’s actually a different approach to the original Testfire – with the Wii U title, the online demo was announced just days before launch, and that was only a few weeks before the full game was released. There were some technical hiccups and a server crash or two, but, overall, it was a successful publicity exercise that built up the hype and gave many of us a real thrill.
When is Splatoon 2 Global Testfire?
March 24
- 12-12:59 PT / 3-3:59 ET / 19:00 – 19:59 GMT / 20:00 – 20:59 CET
- 8-20:59 PT / 11-23:59 ET / 03:00 – 03:59 GMT / 04:00 – 04:59 CET (March 25 EU)
March 25
- 4-4:59am PT / 7-7:59am ET / 11:00am – 11:59am GMT / 12:00pm – 12:59pm CET
- 12-12:59 PT / 3-3:59 ET / 19:00 – 19:59 GMT / 20:00 – 20:59 CET
- 8-20:59 PT / 11-23:59 ET / 04:00 – 04:59 BST / 05:00 – 05:59 CET (26 March EU)
March 26
- 4-4:59 PT / 7-7:59 ET / 12:00 – 12:59 BST / 13:00 – 13:59 CET
This time is a bit different though, probably due to the aforementioned gap filling going on here. Announced well ahead of time, this Testfire also arrives while there is no actual release date for Splatoon 2; all we know is that it will be out this ‘summer’, probably after ARMS. It will be interesting to see if the Nintendo Treehouse transfer is used for any announcements on the subject, but the impact is certainly less precise this time around than with the original.
It’s Splatoon 2 online though, so we’re looking forward to that. With the first session only a few hours away, we want to know if you’re excited about it – take the survey and leave comments below and join us for a live stream and chat during the opening hour and Treehouse broadcast later today.