A new entry in Capcom’s massively popular Monster Hunter series appears to be in the early stages of development.
As part of the company’s latest shareholder meeting, two particularly interesting questions specific to the franchise (H/T, Siliconera) were asked, the first of which garnered a response that many Switch owners will no doubt be tired of hearing. Despite a clear appetite among fans for Monster Hunter World to make its way to Nintendo’s hybrid hardware in the near future, Capcom once more reiterates that it has no plans to release a Switch port.
Why that is, the studio doesn’t say, though the answer could well lie in the reply of the second question. When asked if it had any plans to develop a new Monster Hunter title aimed at capturing the attention of high school students in Japan, a swift “yes” was provided. An oddly specific query on the surface it may seem, but when considered in the context of which platforms Monster Hunter has traditionally found success on, the correlation is immediately obvious.
Prior to World‘s arrival back in 2018, the RPG franchise had been largely restricted to handheld platforms, most notably Nintendo’s DS family of consoles. With mobile and on-the-go gaming exponentially more popular in the East than in Europe and North America, reading between the lines suggests that the reason why Capcom has no interest in porting World to Switch is because it’s getting a dedicated entry.
It’s worth noting, as always, that all of the above remains conjecture at this stage, though we’d be surprised if the outcome were any different. Perhaps the most pertinent question, then, is: will this theoretical Monster Hunter game created specifically for Japanese audiences ever make its way to the West? Let us know what you think in the usual place below!