Lol whoa bro, calm down
Where did you read that only about 10 people from the AC team were working on Splatoon? I believe the Director of AC was involved with Splatoon development as well, so I would think that's a pretty big deal. But you're right, odds are the AC team is pretty huge, but I haven't come across any solid information regarding how big the team actually is, however. A few articles I read awhile back were making it seem like AC was likely not to be on the way this year due to Splatoon development, so I kinda assumed it got in the way some how.
Your input gives me a lot more hope now, in the event of Splatoon not actually taking up much development time, we may actually get an AC Wii U announcement next week.
God damn, I can't wait till Tuesday.
http://mynintendonews.com/2014/06/15/the-splatoon-team-consists-of-the-core-animal-crossing-team/
Yes, I know it says they began with the "small team" of ten - implying that they gathered more later on - but there's no way they're dumb enough to get the entire or majority of the AC team to basically drop what they're doing, and start working on Splatoon, which could have ended up a big disaster if it had not been popular. That's a pretty ****ty move on Nintendo's behalf to basically halt development on one of their most successful franchises to start something that might not even hit off.
He does make a point to say he was after the "younger" people from the AC team, and given that Splatoon has that young/hip vibe to it, it's likely that they were only chosen to give input on the games development and process (you know, because AC is big on the customization, and so is Splatoon), and where to go from what point they're at, etc... Plus, the extensive use of the word "young" implies that the older members of the AC team stayed working on Animal Crossing, and that they were only interested in having younger people working on Splatoon.
It's just highly unlikely that they'd drop work completely on AC to work on Splatoon. Just like Pokemon, they're 100% definitely working on a main series Pokemon game right now (just like they're working on a main series AC game), they're just yet to announce it, but that doesn't mean they're not working on it. iirc, they began working on X and Y before Black and White 2 were even released, so it's safe to assume AC Wii U has got the same treatment, especially considering it's one of their best selling game series atm.
And furthermore, they recently said in Iwata Asks, that when Splatoon was shown at E3 last year, it was only about 10% complete. E3 was in June 2014, and the game released at the end of May 2015, so the game should have been roughly finished around March-April, to allow for ~2 months of "test" time for any glitches and stuff. That's roughly 9-10 months to essentially complete 90% of a game, and to be honest, that really isn't that long compared to most other games. As I mentioned before, X and Y began when they were working on Black and White 2, and Nintendo have also said they began working on Majora's Mask 3D not long after they finished Ocarina of Time. So for them to get 90% of a game complete in such a short time frame also leaves pretty decent hopes that any development of AC Wii U wasn't harmed much, or at least wasn't "harmed" as much is it could have, and AC is a much bigger game than Splatoon, so it's development time is going to be a lot longer than it anyway.
