Nintendo is ending ‘Splatoon 2’ Online Lounge service next month

Nintendo will cease Online Lounge support for Splatoon 2 on their Nintendo Switch Online app by the end of July 2021.

The Online Lounge feature allows gamers to arrange Splatoon 2 battles with their friends—via the Nintendo Switch Online app on mobile phones—by sending each other a link to join private lobbies that can be accessed by walking into the Deca Tower location of the game.

Splatoon 2 is a third-person shooter in which players control characters, known as Inklings and Octolings, using colored ink as ammunition.

The ink ammunition is also used to paint the environment or any paintable surface to allow swimming and refilling of the players’ ink tanks.

The first Splatoon game launched in 2015 as a Wii U exclusive, and Nintendo has announced an upcoming third installment, Splatoon 3, during its Nintendo Direct event last February.

Splatoon 2 received generally positive reviews upon release and had sold over 12.21 million copies worldwide as of March 2021.

Nintendo, in a statement on their support page, says the the app "will continue to allow friends to voice chat, and no other changes to game-specific services will be made to the app at this time."

Support for the Online Lounge feature will end on July 28, 2021.

(Images from Nintendo)