We know that the development team of Splatoon is around 40 people, as Hisashi Nogami the producer of the game told in an interview in IGN
http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/06...ns-of-nintendoas-adorable-squad-based-shooter
So I dont thing that it cost a huge amount of money to produce
The rest (random matchmaking etc) are based on what Famitsu reported on the game and the user sinobi translated for all of us here:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=150548066&postcount=1434
-Random matching is done world wide, game tries to place you with players close to your skill level based on ratings
-Game wont use CPU fighters; only once 8 human players have been found will a match start
-No communication with players you are matched with
If you have any other source on the multiplayer design of the game I am really interested in reading it, because I am very exited about Splatoon, but its multiplayer implementation feels wrong.
If I cannot play (and communicate) with my friends in the same team while battling other teams online, I dont see how the game will grow a loyal following
We are talking about a team based third person shooter here
4v4 random online battles, with random people that you cannot communicate, will be fun for some time, but gamers will get bored easily and I still cannot think how the game is going to build a community
Edit:
I just found a resent interview with Corey Olcsvary from Nintendo Treehouse, that states that there will be a way in splatoon multiplayer to play with friends, but nintendo did not announced anything yet...
lets wait for the splatoon direct in a few days to find out whats really going on...
https://youtu.be/5Fc55GKFpfw?t=10m20s