Nintendo Adds Albacore Hotel Map to Splatoon 2 on the Switch

 Albacore Hotel, a completely new stage, has been added to Splatoon 2 as of today and is available for those who play it on the Nintendo Switch. Four brand new weapons have been added in addition to the hotel map. As one might have come to expect from the Splatoon series, the name Albacore brings to mind images of a briny deep that’s complete with animals that can product their own splotches of ink.

Nintendo representatives announced the news on their official Twitter account, and they then wanted to wish all gamers a happy July in the process. While video game companies often take the summers off to some extent, at least in part because many people experience a lull in their gaming habits during warmer months, Nintendo seems to be in the business of making quite a few dramatic announcements this year.

This is hardly the only thing that Splatoon’s fans have had to look forward to in the last few months. Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion was announced during a Nintendo Direct broadcast back on March 8. They then released the paid DLC pack on June 13.

80 new missions were included with this pack that featured an Octoling called Agent 8, who was a former member of an evil organization. It set a very different feel than people have come to expect from the game.

Moreover, it seems like the release of new content this July should help to continue to promote Splatoon 2 as an eSports title. As far back as the day that the original trailer for the game came out, Nintendo had seemed to want to promote competitive play.

The Japanese-based game company was investing in various Splatoon tournaments as early as the end of 2016, so it’s easy to assume that they’re getting ready for something fairly big int he next few months.

In spite of the changes, the game continues to support amiibo figures. This gives gamers the ability to unlock additional content as well as store some aspects of custom design.

A new sort of bucket was also released with the latest patch, which has some gamers talking about balancing issues. It certainly seems that the new weapons all have the same general range and abilities, and this might make them popular for online play.