Monster Hunter World turned a cult classic into a phenomenon, and Capcom wants Monster Hunter Wilds to go even further beyond: "There are certain things you have to have in place to be a global level hit"
Aug. 22, 2024Monster Hunter series lead Ryozo Tsujimoto says Monster Hunter Wilds is in a better spot
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Over the offbeat Monster Hunter Rise,Monster Hunter Wildsrepresents a more direct follow-up to Monster Hunter World, the breakout hit that catapulted a long-niche series to global stardom. That success was validating, according to longtime series producer Ryozo Tsujimoto, and he believes the lessonsCapcomlearned from World’s record-shattering turnout, whichnow represents over 25% of the total sales of this 20-year-old series, have put Wilds in a much better position to capitalize on its newfound audience.
Speaking withThe Guardian, Tsujimoto says “it was a challenge to bring the series to a global level that it hadn’t had up to that point. There are certain things you have to have in place to be a global level hit that we previously hadn’t been doing.”
One major advancement which may not be “as visible to players,” he says, is greater coordination between Capcom’s global offices. The Japan mothership is now working more closely with Capcom’s Western and global branches. As a result, “we’re in a much better place than we used to be in terms of hearing player feedback and responses to the games, and having that inform our decisions on how to approach the next title.”
“It was a huge relief and vindication, in a way, to have Monster Hunter World become such a big hit," Tsujimoto tells The Guardian, “because it showed we were in the right direction and taking the right steps to open the game up to more players. And with Monster Hunter Wilds, I want to build on that, make the game even more open, so all kinds of players can jump in.”
I saw Monster Hunter Wilds up close earlier this year, and after 500 hours of World,over a dozen significant changes immediately jumped outto me.I also spoke to both Tsujimoto and Wilds game director Yuya Tokudaabout the direction of the franchise, and Tsujimoto stressed that Wilds, built for PC and new-gen consoles ina series-first crossplay simul-launch, “lets us bring that immersiveness and seamlessness that we started the series on with World to the next level.”
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