Capcom has shared a small update in regards to Monster Hunter Wilds.
In a new tweet on the official Monster Hunter account, Capcom stated:
“Monster Hunter Wilds ushers in the next generation of Monster Hunter on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, & PC/Steam in 2025.
The team is hard at work and will be back with news in summer 2024. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy celebrating the Monster Hunter 20th Anniversary!”
There are obviously two interesting things to pick up from this news. With regards to the release date, Capcom has made it clear that fans will still have to wait until 2025 to get to play Monster Hunter Wilds.
But, apparently they are willing to do some advance promotion for the game, so much so that they have already committed to a reveal this coming summer. This presumably would be happening around the same time as E3 month. It could be part of Summer Games Fest 2024, but given the size of this title, Capcom is more likely to showcase it in their own event.
Monster Hunter, it must be said, is one of the pillars of modern day Capcom, so they will go all out in promotion and production values for this future title.
The other interesting element of the news is that it is coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Steam at the same time, and Nintendo Switch is not part of the mix. Without saying so directly, it seems that we now have a better idea of what kind of arrangement Capcom has made with Nintendo in regards to Monster Hunter.
For those not in the know, it had long been rumored, though never officially confirmed, that Nintendo signed an exclusivity deal for Monster Hunter for their platforms, which lasted from 2013 to 2017. If you’re not a Nintendo fan, you shouldn’t dismiss this outright.
In that exclusivity period, the franchise saw its wildest period of experimentation and iteration. Releasing exclusively on the 3DS, Monster Hunter 4, Monster Hunter Generations, and Monster Hunter Stories, Capcom expanded what the franchise could be, as well as improving how well it executed on its ideas.
And then came the big one. In 2018, Capcom released Monster Hunter World, to Steam, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. Monster Hunter World becomes the biggest single title in the company’s history, an accolade it maintains to this day at over 20 million units sold.
And then things get even more interesting. Monster Hunter Rise, the title after Monster Hunter World, stands as the company’s second best-selling title ever, and it launches on the Nintendo Switch. Today, it looks like this next Monster Hunter is deliberately planned for the abilities of current generation platforms, and that probably includes the use of SSD speeds. However, Capcom is sure to still have Nintendo in mind, and will likely bring a Monster Hunter game to the Switch 2.
Could they bring Monster Hunter World to the Switch 2 in the future? Or will they once again design a future Monster Hunter title for Nintendo’s platform first? That may rely on how powerful the Switch 2 will eventually be, but for now, we have a true current generation Monster Hunter on the horizon.
