Splatoon 3 pre-orders are live but there's still no inkling of a release date

Splatoon 3 pre-orders are live at retailers in the US and UK, but Nintendo has yet to reveal exactly when we'll be splatting down.

As spotted by Nintendo Life, Splatoon 3 pre-orders quietly opened up for physical and digital versions of the game. In the US, you can nab a pre-order at GameStop or Amazon (never mind the December 31 placeholder date), while UK shoppers will want to head to 365Games, ShopTo, or Amazon UK.

Nintendo announced Splatoon 3 a little over a year ago during a Nintendo Direct, and more recently it revealed a summer 2022 release window, but there's still no hard release date. That's a little unusual considering it's almost March and pre-orders are going live, but we don't yet have much of a reason to worry about a delay. Nintendo, as it is wont to do, is likely just taking its time nailing down a date and finding the right occasion to make it public.

The sequel is bringing back the fan-favorite Turf War mode where you vie for control over various maps by splatting down enemies and covering surfaces in colored ink. Also returning for Splatoon 3 is the co-op mode introduced in Splatoon 2, now called Salmon Run: The Next Wave. The most recent Nintendo Direct showed off a good chunk of gameplay from the new iteration of the co-op mode, as well as some of the strange new fishy horrors you'll combat in the course of your extremely dangerous part-time job.