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Splatoon 3 was announced in 2021, but more details have been given a year later during the February 9, 2022 Nintendo Direct.
During that Nintendo Direct stream, a trailer was released for the game's co-operative mode, known as "Salmon Run." This sees players banding together to take down Salmonid bosses.
At the end of the trailer, a release time frame was given. Splatoon 3 will arrive in summer 2022, but viewers of the new trailer think they have found a secret alluding to an August 18, 2022 release date, which more than likely is fake.
Splatoon 3 will release in the Summer of 2022
The summer of 2022 is pretty wide open. That could be anywhere from June until autumn, which officially begins in September. The new Splatoon will be released on Nintendo Switch somewhere in there.
The date-reveal QR code is likely fake
Nintendo hasn't officially confirmed anything yet, though some fans believe they've found it out for themselves. In the trailer, around 55 seconds in, a QR code appears in the top left.
The QR is barely visible in the UI at the end of the gray bar next to "Quota." A Reddit post that has since been removed indicated that scanning the QR code reveals the full release date.
The post shared a larger version, but other users quickly noticed that it didn't match the same design. Regardless, some scanned it and were taken to a site that provided an August 18, 2022 release date, which falls right in the middle of summer.
It doesn't match up with Nintendo's typical release schedule. Nintendo games are released on Fridays more often than not, and that day is a Thursday.
Further digging shows that the QR code in the corner is the same design seen in the original announcement trailer. It never opened up to a release date and instead appeared to be part of the design for Splatoon 3.
An August release date could very well be on the table, but nothing is official until Nintendo says it is. Players will have to wait to enter the Splatlands until an undisclosed date in Summer 2022.
