Overview
Okay, so. Splatoon Raiders has had one of those rollouts where every week you had to check three different sources just to figure out what was actually real. It started as a scattered leak back in early May 2026, the kind of thing you squint at and go "sure, maybe," and it has spent the months since slowly, messily earning legitimacy. By the time Nintendo put its name fully behind a comic series in its Nintendo Today App, this had stopped being a rumor you whisper about in a Discord server and started being an actual thing on Nintendo's own calendar. That said, and I want to be honest with you here, not everything about this game is locked down yet. Some of the biggest questions, namely what hardware it's actually landing on and when you'll be able to put your hands on it, are still floating in rumor territory even after a reported reveal event. So let's go through what we genuinely know, what's still "according to leakers," and where the whole thing stands right now.
- Confirmed: an official daily comic series in the Nintendo Today App, running since June 23, 2026
- Reported, not yet locked: a single-player story campaign with up to four-player co-op on the Spirhalite Islands
- Reported, not yet locked: 100+ weapons, upgradeable tank classes, and new gadget customization
- Still rumored: a July 23, 2026 release date and Nintendo Switch 2 exclusivity
The One Piece That's Actually Confirmed: The Nintendo Today Comic
Here's the thing that isn't up for debate. Starting June 23, 2026, Nintendo began publishing an official Splatoon Raiders comic, with new episodes dropping daily inside the Nintendo Today App. That's not a leak, that's not a "sources say," that's Nintendo putting the IP directly in front of its own userbase on its own platform, and honestly that's the strongest signal we've had this whole cycle that this is a real, ongoing project and not just a fever dream cooked up by leak accounts farming engagement. If you want the one detail from this whole saga you can repeat with total confidence, it's this one.
What the Leaks (and a Reported Direct) Say About the Gameplay
Now for the part where things get a little bit blurrier. Multiple outlets, including a reported dedicated Splatoon Raiders Nintendo Direct on June 30, 2026 followed by Treehouse Live coverage, describe a game that moves away from the competitive Turf War loop the mainline series is built on. Instead we're reportedly looking at a single-player-focused, story-driven adventure set on a location called the Spirhalite Islands, with treasure-hunting and exploration front and center, plus an online and local co-op mode for up to four players layered on top. There's also talk of a "Call for Help" feature, essentially a drop-in system letting a friend jump into your raid mid-run to bail you out, which, if it's real, sounds genuinely cozy in a way Splatoon hasn't really done before.
On the loadout side, reports point to over 100 weapons split across distinct levels and rarities, upgradeable tank classes, and gadget customization that works differently from the loadout system in Splatoon 3. I'll be honest, that's a big number, and big leaked numbers make me instinctively raise an eyebrow (I've been burned before, we all have), but the framing lines up with what you'd expect from a raid-focused spin-off that wants progression to feel meatier than a standard Splatoon loadout swap. Treat the specifics as reported rather than gospel until Nintendo puts them on a store page.
Release Date and Platform: Still Genuinely Up in the Air
This is the part where I have to be a little bit annoying and refuse to just hand you a clean answer, because the situation is genuinely unclear. You will see July 23, 2026 floating around as the release date, and Nintendo Switch 2 floating around as the exclusive platform, attached to language that makes it sound locked in. But between the earlier PEGI 7 rating leak from April 2026 (old news at this point, and it mostly just told us the game exists and is aimed at a broad audience) and the reported Direct, the platform tie and that specific July window haven't been nailed down in a way I'm comfortable calling settled. My honest advice: treat July 23, 2026 on Switch 2 as the current best guess, not a locked date. If it slips, don't be shocked if you start seeing "Splatoon Raiders 2027" searches pick up instead. I'd rather tell you it's unclear than confidently hand you a date that falls apart in a month.
Where Splatoon Raiders Fits in the Splatoon Family Tree
A little bit of history for context, because I think it actually matters here. The original Splatoon on Wii U back in 2015 was built by Nintendo EAD, Entertainment Analysis and Development, before that division merged with Nintendo SPD in September 2015 to form what we now know as Nintendo EPD. Splatoon 2 on Switch and Splatoon 3 were both EPD productions, not EAD, which is a small but genuinely interesting bit of trivia if you're the kind of person (like me) who tracks which internal Nintendo team gets credit for what. Splatoon Raiders slots in as a spin-off rather than a mainline entry, closer in spirit to how Nintendo occasionally lets a big IP branch sideways into a different genre without disrupting the numbered series. If you've played through Splatoon, Splatoon 2, and Splatoon 3 and you're craving something that isn't another round of Turf War, a raid-focused co-op adventure is exactly the kind of detour that IP deserves.
Where to Play It (or Preorder It) Once It's Out
Right now, the honest answer is: you can't buy it yet, because it hasn't released. What you can do today is read the daily comic in the Nintendo Today App, which is free and currently the only piece of official, ongoing content you can actually consume. Once the game does release, current reporting points toward it being a Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive, so if that holds, you'll want that console (or access to one) rather than a base Switch. My genuine advice: keep an eye on Nintendo's own store listings and official channels rather than trusting a preorder link from a random storefront, especially while the release window is still this fluid. I'll update this the moment something moves from "reported" to "confirmed on Nintendo's own site."
Picking Up Japanese Along the Way
One thing I genuinely love about following a story like this is how much incidental Japanese you pick up without trying. Splatoon as a franchise is stuffed with playful, punny Japanese terms, 烏賊 (ika, squid) (squid) and 蛸 (tako, octopus) (octopus) being the obvious starting point, and a raid-and-treasure spin-off like this one is going to be full of new vocabulary once localized and original text starts surfacing. If you're using Splatoon Raiders as an excuse to sharpen your Japanese, that's honestly a great way to do it, games hook your brain in a way flashcards never quite manage. Keep checking back here as more official text drops, because we'll be breaking down the vocabulary and any notable kanji as it becomes available.
