SPLATOON RAIDERS PRE-ORDER: $10 OFF AT WALMART, FULL PRICE ON AMAZON

Splatoon Raiders, the new Switch 2 exclusive that trades the series' usual multiplayer focus for a single-player campaign with up to four-player co-op, launches July 23. Preorders are live, and right now the best deal on a physical cartridge is at Walmart, which is offering the game for $49.99. That is ten dollars below its standard $59.99 price and matches the digital version exactly.

Your window to lock in that $10 discount is closing. Walmart won't keep the price down forever. Amazon, meanwhile, is sitting on the full $59.99 listing and hasn't applied any preorder discount yet. There is a chance it will: Amazon's preorder policy charges you the lowest price the retailer offers between your order date and launch day. So if Amazon does eventually match Walmart, anyone who preordered early will get the cheaper rate automatically. But that is a maybe, not a guarantee.

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THE SWITCH 2 PRICING TROUBLES

This price mismatch is a direct consequence of a policy Nintendo announced in March. In the future, digital Switch 2 games will cost ten dollars less than their physical counterparts. So the baseline expectation for a $59.99 game like Splatoon Raiders is that the digital version stays at $49.99 while the cartridge holds at $59.99. But during the preorder phase, retailers like Walmart have been knocking ten dollars off the physical edition, effectively eliminating the price gap for early buyers. The same thing happened with Yoshi and the Mysterious Book and Star Fox, both of which had preorder windows where the physical and digital editions were the same price.

The question is how long that parity lasts. Once the game ships, Walmart will likely raise the cartridge back to $59.99. Amazon may or may not follow with a discount before then. For anyone who wants the physical version, the smart move is to preorder now at Walmart and lock in the savings.

WHY SPLATOON RAIDERS IS A MUST-BUY

The Splatoon series has always been about chaotic ink-based multiplayer, but Raiders is a deliberate pivot. It is a single-player-focused title that still includes a cooperative mode for up to four players, locally or online. That makes it a rare breed in the franchise: a single-player experience you can enjoy alone or with friends, without needing a full lobby. It is a Switch 2 exclusive, and it offers a different kind of Splatoon experience.

For longtime Splatoon fans, Raiders represents the kind of expansion the series needed. The competitive turf wars will always be the main draw, but a dedicated single-player campaign could pull in players who bounced off the multiplayer chaos. The co-op component means you can bring friends along without forcing them into ranked matches.

DON'T THINK, HEAD OVER TO WALMART

If you want Splatoon Raiders on cartridge at launch and want to save ten bucks, head to Walmart and preorder. If you prefer digital, go ahead and buy now or later; the price is already $49.99 and will not change. If you have an Amazon preorder sitting at $59.99, do not cancel it just yet, but do keep an eye on the listing. Amazon might apply the discount before July 23, and their price guarantee means you will get the lower cost automatically. If the discount never appears, you can still cancel and switch to Walmart.

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The larger takeaway is that Nintendo's digital-versus-physical pricing strategy is creating weird preorder dynamics that shift from retailer to retailer and from week to week. For the moment, Splatoon Raiders gives you an easy choice: lock in the cheaper cartridge now or accept the risk of paying full price later. Based on what we know, the game itself looks like a solid addition to the Switch 2 library. The only question is how much you want to spend to get it on day one.