When the Wii U came out in 2012, the impact of its existence would forever affect Nintendo's image, mainly because it was heavily memed upon. It would also impact my image, because the console was responsible for my beloved Splatoon, which was released on the Wii U in 2015, making me known in friendship groups as a paintballing god. Now that the game has two sequels, I'm curious to know how much it would cost you if you wanted to pick up all the Splatoon games and their consoles. Yes, including the Wii U.
To clarify, we're talking about the total cost of Splatoon 1, 2, and 3, plus a Nintendo Switch and a Wii U. This also includes the Octo Expansion DLC for Splatoon 2 and the Side Order DLC for Splatoon 3. I had a hunt around in both US and UK stores, just to check that they were the same-ish. They kind of… weren't at all. I soon found out that the Wii U is significantly cheaper in the US than in the UK, making the bundle of all the games and consoles a mere $750, while in the UK, it'll cost over £900. That converts to $1.2k for those who haven't memorized the current exchange rate.
But why is the Splatoon set so much more expensive in the UK? Well, let's talk about the Wii U. It's hard to say exactly why this console was so poorly received - was it too close to its predecessor? Was it that the world wasn't ready yet for the handheld/dock mashup that's so beloved on the Switch? Were the Wii U games not appealing enough? Whatever your opinion, by the time of its discontinuation in 2017, only six million Wii U's had been sold in the Americas. That means it's now hard to get your hands on the Wii U, especially when compared to the Switch, which has sold a whopping 155 million units to date.
Only, this number looks vast when you compare it to the total number of consoles sold anywhere outside of Japan or the Americas. Yep - only 3.73 million units were sold in the entirety of the rest of the world. That explains why it's more expensive to purchase a Wii U in the UK than in the US - while I had originally wondered if there were more refurbished consoles in America than elsewhere, I discovered that it's not about the second-hand market, it's about the first-hand. Nintendo bombing this console has knock-on effects for game archiving.
Anyway, as a little cost breakdown, a Wii U in the US is going for about $250, while a standard Nintendo Switch costs $320. After that, you're looking at $35 for Splatoon, $70 for Splatoon 2 and its DLC, and $77 for Splatoon 3 and its DLC. This is pretty reasonable for an entire franchise of games, all things considered, and could be within the standard hyperfixated nerd's budget. However, there is, of course, one problem: Splatoon Raiders.
Splatoon Raiders is an upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive. It's not a mainline Splatoon game, but if we're going by franchise, we kinda have to include it. This will, of course, not only add the cost of the game, but adding the Switch 2 to the calculations will send this figure into the stratosphere, frankly. It costs nearly as much as the Switch 1 and Wii U combined. That being said, we don't even have a Splatoon Raiders release date yet, so I didn't include it in the calculations. There's still time to declare that you own the entire Splatoon franchise before its arrival. GLHF, and I'll see you at the next Splatoon 3 SplatFest.