Free?

Are we still talking about Nintendo here?

With Splatoon 1, it's worth noting that the first few content updates were already on the disc, and would be automatically activated over time without actually downloading anything. Some of the maps from the first wave even appeared in story mode. So it wasn't a matter of them rushing an unfinished game, but a calculated move to drip-feed content as a way of keeping players coming back on a regular basis.

A lot of Splatoon's design decisions can be directly attributed to a fear that a Wii U multiplayer game might not sustain a critical mass of players, and doing everything they can to ensure it stays populated.

For S2 and 3, those games launched with a reasonably sizable amount of content out of the gate, building on the foundation from their predecessors. They still withheld some stuff, the way S3 handled kits was annoying, but I don’t think it's fair to call it half-assed.

All of those games were excellent out of the gate…what are you even talking about?