Nintendo has explained why its new co-operative spinoff Splatoon Raiders launched ahead of a fully-fledged Splatoon 4, with producer Seita Inoue saying the team wanted to create a new, more accessible entry point into the franchise. Raiders, a Switch 2 exclusive action RPG, shifts focus away from the series' usual competitive ink-based multiplayer towards single-player shooting, boss battles and story content, and has been receiving strong reviews since release.

Inoue said the Splatoon team has been "going full speed ahead" for more than 11 years since the original 2015 Wii U game, followed by Switch sequels Splatoon 2 and 3, and wanted to try a different, more solitary style of gameplay by building on existing cooperative elements such as Salmon Run and Story Mode. He stressed this was released as a standalone spinoff rather than as "Splatoon 4" precisely because Nintendo intends to keep developing competitive gameplay for the mainline series in future, though no details or timeline for a fourth entry have been given. IGN's review awarded Splatoon Raiders 9/10, praising it as the series' best campaign yet.