Nintendo Bans Splatoon 3 Cheaters Before The Game’s Even Out

It’s unclear if these bans constitute a total ban from the Nintendo Switch Online service—OatmealDome now suggests that the ban may only prevent affected players from playing more Splatoon 3 on their console—but it certainly doesn’t seem like something you’d want to test.

“When I saw reports on Twitter about people getting banned because of that one patch, I was completely unsurprised,” OatmealDome told Kotaku over Twitter DMs. “Patching the game’s code would [also] get you banned on Splatoon 2.

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“Nintendo is taking cheating seriously this time around,” they said. “[whereas] Splatoon and [Splatoon] 2 were both completely unprotected when they launched.”

However, they note that “a bunch of high-profile incidents” that affected Splatoon 2 caused Nintendo to get more serious. “This led to Splatoon 2 getting a pretty decent anti-cheat solution implemented, and it seems to be rather effective thus far,” they said. “Nintendo wants to continue that into Splatoon 3.”

Kotaku has reached out to Nintendo for comment.

We’ve learned a lot about Splatoon 3 thanks to the 30-minute Direct Nintendo held on August 10. Alongside the return of fan-favorite stages like Hammerhead Bridge, the colorful shooter will let you barrel roll out of the ink, still refuses proper in-game voice chat, and features a ton of new guns I’m pretty stoked for this game. Splatoon 3 hits Nintendo Switch exclusively on September 9.