Buy him Splatoon and see how he reacts, if you dont like how he reacts and behavior while he playing, just sale the game.

Yeah, it really gets better as time goes on, especially if they are daily in enviroment that is supportive for them (kids in regular schools can sometimes be really mean to them). Mine really got better in last 3 years with social interactions and understanding defeat, having younger brother also helped a lot, since they play a lot of games together.

I find that board games are also great way for them to socialize and learn rules.

7/8 years? Splatoon will be fine. I was playing AoE II and COD at that age (and to be fair, COD has grown stale, so Splatoon might be a more imaginative choice).

The environment here is very supportive. Although my son has a lot of... let's call them quirks, all the kids seem to like him and help him along. We're living in a very small town, and the whole school has just about 120 pupils, so the atmosphere is very familiar. But I digress...

My copy of Splatoon has already been sent out and it looks like it'll be delivered tomorrow.

Splatoon will be fine. Actually one of our friend's kids has some emotional problems at school too. When they were at that age they loved playing Unreal tournament at our house. I had the luxury back then to have 3 networked pc's so I could play with them in lan. They teaming up trying to get me. I always had to be careful not to beat them too much! I think matchmaking is pretty even in Splatoon. My son was about as much on the winning team as losing.

Mario maker is still a hit. Maybe 8 is a good age to start designing levels. My 6 year old mainly makes those annoying 'let's see how many mobs fit here' levels :)

I never got to 100% on Lego city undercover. My kids keep starting new games overwriting the old! It's at 477 hours, 316 times played. Compared to Splatoon, 26 hours, 39 times played. They'll get back to it, we have too many games, spoiled brats. They actually played it last 8 days ago, loving that daily log hehe.

My partner son is 9 and Splatoon is his favourite game, he loves the game, he originally wanted cod because all his friends have them, not something i was going to let him play, i think you should get it and see how it goes, i think we all have a little bit of that sore loser streak in us as kids, hard to say if he is just been good because he wants the game or not though.

RTS games are maybe a bit too soon for him, but the stuff he builds in Minecraft is pretty interesting.

I'll try to keep this thread updated. And thanks for the good wishes. :)

I think I can rule this out, because I never said I'd get him Splatoon. I'm sure he just realized that games can be fun even when losing, as long as you're trying your best.

If you have a console that plays Splatoon, you have one that plays COD (well, an older title at least).

At the topic: Turf Wars might be working. The teams get reassigned each round based on the success of the players so the two teams are more or less the same level. Also you get points every time you play (only more if you play better or are in the winning team) and these points work toward raising a level that allows to access more weapons. So he might get bonus for playing regularly, even if it is bad. Only in ranked mode the rank can also go down.

Also a recommendation: if there are other childs that play Splatoon he knows, he can play a game with friends. Need enough friends though. But it might not be so hard.

So, the biggest obstacle is the emotional reaction to losing or getting shot (which turns into a respawn). That is something you have to observe for yourself. What you describe for Mario Kart Online might be encouraging.

Until your Splatoon team loses at overtime when your tower just needed one more "meter" to win. =/