Nintendo is always experimenting with ideas and patents are a very important part of this process. Sometimes it will be hardware related and other times it will be more focused on gameplay experiences.
This opportunity is about the gameplay side of things – with the latest submission seemingly focused on improving minimaps. The gist of it, according to Axios’ Stephen Totilo, is that it’s about making “better minimaps” for series like splatoon.
You can see the original patent application here, which is a giant wall of text. There are various references to “ink shooting” and “painting” areas throughout the patent, meaning it could potentially have something to do with the upcoming Switch version turn 3 GoNintendo also provided a brief synopsis:
“This mini-map approach aims to make it easier for players to understand not only their own location, but also the location of helpful items and other important areas on the map, as well as with the changing important areas on the map.”
As with all patents, there’s no telling that Nintendo will actually push things further. So we’ll just have to see what comes of it.
This filing follows some controller patent news over the last month:
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2022/04/nintendo-has-filed-a-new-patent-seemingly-linked-to-splatoon Nintendo has filed a new patent that appears to be related to Splatoon