Emily Rogers Rumour: There's a lot of Wii U ports coming to NX

[Soundwave]

2018 is way too late for Splatoon 2. They will want that within the first year. Splatoon isn't some mega epic RPG, the development of the first game was relatively fast (done in just under 2 years which includes lengthy concept testing, the actual game itself was basically developed in a year).

I think Nintendo wants the "trinity" of Mario Maker + Smash + Splatoon much earlier in the NX's lifecycle.

Splatoon is the new Nintendo star franchise, they need to get it out quickly.