Satoru Iwata made a surprise guest appearance at the Monster Hunter 4 launch event, making allusions to a possible Capcom – Nintendo collaboration.
Iwata’s appearance actually brought things full circle from when the game was first announced for 3DS almost two years ago. Iwata cited 3DS unit sales of 12 million units in Japan alone, and talking up the platform’s performance in a time when dedicated gaming handhelds were supposed to be performing poorly.
Iwata also threw out another interesting statistic: 90 % of those abovementioned 3DS users are connected online. This high adoption rate enabled optimized use of games like Monster Hunter 4, and Iwata is also working on adding more Streetpass functions for fans to get even more benefit.
In the end, Iwata left some very mysterious hints to Capcom and Nintendo’s collaboration. He talked about how many would not have thought Capcom and Nintendo working together so closely was even possible, but they went ahead with Monster Hunter 4 and apparently left a symbol of this teamup in the game. Nintendo and Capcom will reveal what they mean by this collaboration but we will have to wait until September 14 to find out.
Capcom has always been a supporter of Nintendo platforms, but like other third parties, they do not necessarily give Nintendo all their best games. The two companies were well known for having worked together on the Capcom Five between 2002 and 2003, but that same collaboration was compromised, as Capcom would later cancel one game and multiplat three, leaving P.N.03 as the system’s only exclusive. Capcom left Nintendo hanging as the console maker found itself struggling to keep 3rd parties committed to making exclusives.
Circumstances are much different now, as Capcom is struggling to find its bottomline, and is banking on Monster Hunter’s success on Nintendo platforms to help them in the rebound.
Source: NintendoEverything
