Capcom president Haruhiro Tsujimoto has claimed the “PS5 barrier” for Monster Hunter Wilds is “unexpectedly large”, which has limited the game’s success on Sony’s console.
Tsujimoto was interviewed by Nikkei back in May, though just recently published (and translated on ResetEra), where he discussed the game’s initial 10m sales in its first month of release.
He stated PS5 was considered the main platform for the game, however the steep price of both the console and the game itself – especially in comparison to previous entries in the series now available on sale – had an impact on sales. In particular, younger generations are often unable to afford such high prices.
Capcom therefore aims to boost sales of the game with limited time sales – it had a 20 percent reduction at the end of June, for instance.
More interestingly, Tsujimoto commented on the popularity of Nintendo’s Switch 2, stating despite the price the “response was better than we had expected”.
There’s no indication here that Monster Hunter Wilds will appear on Switch 2 anytime soon. However, the series has a long history with handheld consoles from both Nintendo and Sony, with previous entry Monster Hunter Rise releasing on Switch before other platforms.
However, with the multitude of performance issues across both home consoles and PC with Monster Hunter Wilds, a Switch 2 version seems ambitious at this point.
It’s particularly interesting PS5 was considered the primary platform, considering the vast majority of sales for Monster Hunter Wilds have actually been on PC. It perhaps explains why the PC version of the game, with its much-criticised performance issues, is yet to be properly optimised – PC players will be waiting almost a year for a comprehensive fix.
Ahead of the game’s release, producer Ryozo Tsujimoto noted there are “more players than ever playing on PC, including in Japan” so Capcom sees “room for the series to capture new players who haven’t tried it before if that’s their chosen platform”. At the least, Capcom was aware of the game’s potential PC popularity.
This is a news-in-brief story. This is part of our vision to bring you all the big news as part of a daily live report.