Imagine saving up money to buy stock so you can attend a shareholder meeting with the company president and complain about something in a video game. That’s exactly what one Splatoon 3 fan allegedly did. GLHF reports that a Splatoon 3 player saved up enough money to attend a recent Nintendo shareholder meeting only to complain about the ink-based team-based shooter’s apparent lack of poses for male hints and octolings.
Attendees reportedly held up the meeting for some time with their grievances, stating that Nintendo “went cold on boys” (as translated by GLHF’s Georgina Young), accusing the Big N of favoring female characters. They are previously wrote to Nintendo about their concerns before, but claim they were ignored because things “didn’t improve”.
With the letters seemingly ignored, the participant says they bought a Switch OLED with a credit card, sold it at a loss for cash, and then bought some Nintendo stock to qualify to attend the annual shareholder meeting.
Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa apparently tried to stop the person from speaking by saying their question was too long (OatmealDomethrough NStyles), but they persisted in their argument.
A fan said he was filled with “dread” during the promotional period for Splatoon 3 because all the trailers always “showed the character of the girl”. Previously, they claim, customization was more limited for all character types, but in Splatoon 3, “there’s a clear favoritism” towards girl characters. Furukawa reportedly responded by thanking the fan for playing the game.
It’s certainly an unusual way to get your point across, and it’s gotten a lot of attention within the Splatoon 3 fandom — especially in Japan. While some agree that there is an imbalance, many others believe that there is more pressing issues which need addressing in the game. Others feel like a shareholder meeting this is not the place for such complaints.
It’s worth noting that Splatoon 3 doesn’t assign a gender to your character. Similar to Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Splatoon 3 allows you to choose an Inkling or Octoling ‘style’, and no clothing or hairstyles are tied to either male or female presentation styles. Even with many NPCs being gendered, it’s great that the player has the option to customize their character however they want.
