Nintendo has announced an open beta for Splatoon will start this weekend, but it’ll only run at certain times.
During a special Nintendo Direct today dedicated to the game, Nintendo confirmed a Splatoon open beta that will run across the whole weekend.
Well, we say the whole weekend, but Nintendo is only allowing the open beta to run at certain times and dates.
You can play 4v4 online Splatoon for three hours across on Saturday May 9, Sunday May 10 and Monday May 11.
However, the timings are a little odd because they’re primarily for the US.
The open beta times are as follows for the UK:
- Saturday May 9: 4am — 5am
- Sunday May 10: 12am — 1am
- Monday May 11: 4pm — 5pm
The beta, which Nintendo is calling ‘Global Firetest Demo’, will be made available on the Nintendo eShop later today, but you won’t be able to play it unless it’s the certain time slots listed above.
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If you download and play the beta demo, you’ll also bag yourself a 10 per cent discount on a digital copy of the game when it launches on May 29 on Wii U.
A range of free DLC will be made available to players post-launch too, including new weapons, a new Tower Control ranked battle mode and further matchmaking functionality. The latter feature will allow four players to form a team and square off against another team.
The game will also gain a third ranked battle mode and additional cosmetic items in August.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.