New Nintendo Patent Seems to Hint at Mini-Map Improvements in Splatoon 3

Details on Splatoon 3 have been scant for some time, but with the game still expected to launch sometime this year, there’s obviously plenty of hunger for new information. Interestingly, some of that seems to have emerged courtesy of a recent Nintendo patent, spotted by Axios’ Stephen Totilo on Twitter.

The patent is focused on improvements made to in-game mini-maps, mostly centered around dynamically shifting camera perspectives based on how a match is progressing, and highlighting not only the player but also useful items or areas in the vicinity.

Splatoon isn’t mentioned by name anywhere in the patent, but the mini-map functionality and UI described matches Splatoon 3 very closely, while as Nintendo Life pointed out, there are also references to “ink” and “paint” in there. In all likelihood, these are changes that Nintendo has at least considered making in Splatoon 3, though as is always the case with patents, there’s no guarantee that this will definitely materialize.

Interestingly, in December of last year, another batch of patents filed by Nintendo revealed potential gameplay details on The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s sequel.

Splatoon 3 has a Summer 2022 launch window, but given the lack of updates from Nintendo, there are some question marks over whether it will be able to hit that target- especially with the Switch now having another major Summer exclusive release with Xenoblade Chronicles 3.

Here's some newish Nintendo patent that I think is about making better mini-maps for games like Splatoon. Don't have time to decode it, so letting all of you amazing patent readers have at it instead. Let me know! https://t.co/YG23Ouoloa pic.twitter.com/OYt2hud3To

— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) April 19, 2022