One of Japan’s biggest retailers began offering a PS5 rental service last week, but it’s already fully booked thanks in large part to the popularity of Monster Hunter Wilds.
GEO began offering the service on 28th February, neatly timed with the release of Capcom’s latest monster hunting game. It’s surprisingly cheap too, with a week’s rental at around a fiver and two weeks for under a tenner.
However, the availability is completely blocked out until mid-April across all regions, as Automaton reported. No appointments beyond this date are open for booking.
Japanese players are notorious for maintaining the quality of their gaming tech, but I’m not convinced a similar service would work here in the UK. Too many sticky controllers.
GEO hasn’t stated how many consoles are available for rental, but the service is being provided across its 400 stores nationwide – the fact it’s booked up proves the service (and Monster Hunter Wilds) are extremely popular.
In fact, it’s yet another example of the impact Capcom’s game is having over in Japan.
Earlier this week, Eurogamer reported cheese naan sales are on the rise thanks to Monster Hunter Wilds’ delectable food scenes.
One Tokyo-based Nepalese restaurant thanked Monster Hunter directly for boosting its cheese naan sales.
Monster Hunter Wilds reached the highest concurrent player numbers on Steam for the series, quickly reaching over 1.3 million players just a couple of days after launch. That’s over four times higher than Monster Hunter: World, which reached more than 300,000 concurrent players.
Not only that, Monster Hunter Wilds is Capcom’s fastest-selling game ever, reaching over 8m units sold in just three days across PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
“The most exhilarating and refined Monster Hunter yet, even if its attempts to balance the old and new don’t always quite coalesce in its ongoing quest to please all audiences,” reads our Eurogamer Monster Hunter Wilds review.