A Monster Hunter World developer has revealed what he believes has been the key to the game’s roaring success around the world. Primarily, he believes that the franchise’s previous focus on handheld consoles was a major speed bump in the games getting any kind of momentum outside of Japan, although that wasn’t the only reason that he thinks it did well this time around.
“Our success in the west with Monster Hunter World comes down to a lot of things coming together that we didn’t have before with previous titles,” Producer Ryozo Tsujimoto said in an interview with Video Games Chronicle. “We were obviously releasing previous games in the West and we wanted them to appeal to those players, but when we gathered post-release feedback there were a number of key requests which were always there.”
“Number one, players wanted us to release our games on consoles,” he continued, “because in the years before Monster Hunter World he had been focused on portables, which was something that was maybe holding us back in the West. We found that Western players want a console experience on a big screen TV at home.”
Mr. Tsujimoto went on to say that the shift away from portable consoles wasn’t the only reason for the game’s success. Another factor that he believes may have hurt sales in the past was the lack of a simultaneous worldwide release, something that was obviously rectified for Monster Hunter World.
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The shift in strategy has clearly been a success for the fine folks at CAPCOM, as the game sold more than 10 million copies and was likely a strong factor in contributing towards one of its best fiscal years in recent memory.
That’s not to say the developers have been resting on their laurels, either, as they’ve recently held a beta test for Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, an upcoming expansion to the game that’s expected in September 2019. If you haven’t had the chance to play it, you can pick it up on Steam right now for $29.99 or your regional equivalent, a 50% discount off of its retail price.
