When quizzed about this aspect of the game, Nogami stated that there were two main reasons for holding things back:

First, we put a lot of effort into every inch of the online stages, so by playing them over and over again users can get a better feel for the terrain, giving the gameplay more breadth and depth. The characteristics of the weapons and the strategies for using them vary with each weapon, and of course these will vary depending on the stage you use them in and even what combination of equipment your teammates and opponents are using. We want users to enjoy each and every single piece of content we've prepared, so rather than provide a lot at once, we're going to be adding them a little at a time.

Second, is that while we've paid a lot of attention to the balancing the game, the flip-side of this is that we feel the game needs weapons with a lot of variety as well as stages with complex layouts to really expand the gameplay.

The problem there is that these can sometimes disrupt the overall balance of the game.

The real fun of Splatoon comes when players are comfortable with the game, and are able to play to their full potential with other players they meet in the online matches.

We'll be adding more stages and weapons as we see how the community matures. We'll also do something similar with further game modes too.

About Voice Chat:

We want everyone to play this game from the same point, so that all players – those who haven't played shooters before, as well as those who have – can enjoy the game. Getting to this though meant going through a selection process for all features that should appear in the game, and as part of this process we decided to leave out voice chat.

We think there are two reasons for wanting to use it: to play strategically, and to know what you opponent is feeling. We designed the game so that it's still possible to play strategically, while also giving due consideration so that there is no extreme advantage one way or the other. In terms of knowing what your opponent is feeling, we really do understand the fun that can be had with this, but we hope that you will also understand that it can also have a negative effect too.

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2015/06/splatoon_producer_inks_out_reasons_for_lack_of_voice_chat_and_staggered_content_roll-out

I agree with the producer.

Splatoon is fantastic, and I feel the roll out is interesting. I feel compelled to keep playing.

Except for the fact that the latest content was on the disc already.

It's only an issue if they start falling behind on more updates.

You could just as well wait a few weeks if it bothers you so much. But as it is, people are really happy to get the game in its current state. What's so horrible about that?

Voice chat sucks... period. I'm 35 years old. I'm a "big boy". I've been gaming online before most of the users on this site were in high school and it's ALWAYS sucked. For every one respectful opponent, there's 20 douche bag assholes trolling and being racist and offensive. At this point, NOT having voice chat in a game is a plus for me.

My only issue with Splatoon right now is the fact that online matches drop and/or disconnect way too often. I'm hoping it's just a case of early adoption because if not, I'm going to be pretty pissed off.

Oh, and please dear god patch Pro Controller support. My hands are too use to regular controllers for FPS and I really need them to play well.

Other than that... great game.

That's a really poor explanation. As if other online competitive games don't rely on familiarizing players with maps, weapons and tactics. That's the whole purpose of games like this, his reasoning for leaving out voice chat is also hogwash and I hope that no one thinks otherwise.
No, this only strengthens my initial concern and protest over this decision; that's some fairly ridiculous rationalization right there imo.

Edit; think about it, he says that they wanted to slowly release content so players could develop and get to know the tactics of the various maps and weapons and then goes on to say that they left out voice chat because it is used for tactics and they don't want to "scare" the players. That's actually, objectively ridiculous and self-contradicting.

But u don't need voice chat for a quick 3 minute match. If the matches were longer I'd agree, but I personally haven't felt the need for voice chat after playing for more than 30 hours online already.

Voice chat would ruin Splatoon IMO. Yelling and screaming back and forth would scare off people who don't usually play multiplayer shoots.

There are many other FPS shooters like that, if it bothers you so much go play one of them.

See my edit; his reasoning for leaving out voice chat is strange at best and goes directly against his argument for slowly releasing more content.

I'll just say this:

Voice chat would've been a very nice feature, but considering how regular turf war matches are only 3 minutes, I really don't find it too vital.

what the fuck? is he serious? those are some pretty stupid reasons. seriously who believes this shitty nonesense?