Monster Hunter: Conquering the Global Gaming Scene

In the lead-up to its global launch, Monster Hunter Wilds shattered pre-order records on both Steam and PlayStation, following in the footsteps of its highly successful predecessors, Monster Hunter Rise from 2022 and Monster Hunter: World from 2018. These sales figures have firmly established Capcom's unique and esoteric RPG series as one of the world's largest video game franchises.

However, this wasn't always the case. Just a decade ago, the notion of a Monster Hunter game achieving such global acclaim would have seemed improbable. Going back even further to the series' debut in 2004, the idea would have been even more far-fetched, as the original game received mixed reviews. It wasn't until the series transitioned to the PSP in 2005 that it truly took off, but this success was initially confined to Japan.

For a long time, Monster Hunter epitomized the "game series bigger in Japan than the rest of the world" phenomenon. The reasons for this were straightforward, as this article will explore, yet Capcom persistently sought ways to expand Monster Hunter's appeal to an international audience. The success of Monster Hunter: World, Rise, and now Wilds demonstrates that these efforts were indeed worthwhile.

This is the story of how Monster Hunter evolved from a domestic hit to a global powerhouse.

Around the time of Street Fighter 5's launch in 2016, Capcom underwent an internal reorganization to prepare for a new generation of games. These games would utilize the company's new RE Engine, replacing the aging MT Framework. This shift was more than just a technological upgrade; it came with a new mandate to create games for a global audience, not just for existing, territory-specific fans.

"It was a combination of factors," says Hideaki Itsuno, a former game director at Capcom known for his work on Devil May Cry. "The change of the engine and the clear goal given to all teams to make games that reach the global market, games that are fun for everyone."

During the PS3 and Xbox 360 era, Capcom's games seemed to target an imagined "Western games market." While Resident Evil 4 was a significant success, other titles like Umbrella Corps and the Lost Planet series, which chased Western gaming trends, did not fare as well. Capcom eventually realized the need to create games that appealed to a broader, global audience, not just fans of traditional Western genres.

"I think that we had that clear goal of just focusing and not holding anything back," Itsuno says. "Towards making good games that would reach people from all over the world."

Itsuno notes that the period leading up to 2017 was crucial. "The changes in organization and the engine, all these elements came together around that time," he says. The launch of Resident Evil 7 in 2017 marked the beginning of a Capcom renaissance.

No other series better exemplifies Capcom's new goal for global success than Monster Hunter. Although it had a dedicated fanbase in the West, the series was significantly more popular in Japan for decades. This wasn't because Monster Hunter was intended to be a Japan-only phenomenon, but rather due to real-world factors.

Monster Hunter found immense success when it transitioned from the PlayStation 2 to the PSP with Monster Hunter Freedom Unite. The handheld gaming market has always been stronger in Japan, as evidenced by the success of the PSP, Nintendo's DS, and more recently, the Switch. According to the series' executive producer Ryozo Tsujimoto, the key to Monster Hunter's success in Japan was the ability for gamers to play reliably with friends, thanks to Japan's advanced wireless internet network, which was years ahead of the United States at the time.

"20 years ago, Japan was in a very solid state in terms of the network environments available to people, and being able to connect and play online together," Tsujimoto says. "And of course, we're not speaking for everyone there, because we realize that there are people who may not have had the chance to play with friends back then. But by moving over to handheld systems, we were able to grow that player base that was interacting and playing multiplayer together."

Monster Hunter, built on the core pillar of cooperative play, recognized that this aspect would be best served when friends could quickly jump into hunts together. Handheld consoles were the ideal platform at the time, and Japan's advanced internet infrastructure meant that Monster Hunter was initially developed with a local market in mind, even if unintentionally.

This created a feedback loop. Monster Hunter games became best-sellers primarily in Japan, leading Capcom to release Japan-only content and host Japan-only special events, further reinforcing the series as a "Japan-only" brand.

Despite this, Monster Hunter did have fans in the West, who eagerly watched as Japanese players received exclusive content. As the Western world improved its internet infrastructure and online play became standard for console gamers, Tsujimoto and the team saw an opportunity to launch their most advanced and globally accessible Monster Hunter game to date.

Released in 2018 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, Monster Hunter: World marked a significant shift for the franchise. Instead of being designed for smaller, less-capable handheld consoles, it offered large-scale, AAA console-quality action with enhanced graphics, larger areas, and, of course, bigger monsters.

"Our approach to the globalization of the series and Monster Hunter in general really ties into not only the themes that we had going into designing the game, but also in the name of the game," Tsujimoto reveals. "The fact that we called it Monster Hunter: World is really a nod to the fact that we wanted to appeal to this worldwide audience that we wanted to really dig into and experience Monster Hunter for the first time."

It was crucial that Monster Hunter: World did not give the impression that Capcom was prioritizing one market over another. The game was released simultaneously worldwide, with no exclusive content locked to Japan, something Tsujimoto says "comes with realigning ourselves to hit those global standards that people come to expect of titles around the world."

It wasn't just about ensuring other regions received Monster Hunter: World at the same time as Japan; Tsujimoto and his team conducted extensive focus tests and user tests worldwide to refine the game's formula and broaden its appeal.

"We did focus tests and user tests across the world, and some of the impact of those — the feedback and the opinions that we got during that really affected how we designed our game systems and really affected how much success we had as a global title for that game," Tsujimoto says.

One significant change resulting from these tests was the addition of visible damage numbers when players hit monsters. These small tweaks to an already successful formula propelled Monster Hunter to unprecedented heights. While previous Monster Hunter games typically sold between 1.3 to 5 million copies, Monster Hunter: World and its 2022 follow-up, Monster Hunter Rise, both surpassed 20 million copies sold.

This growth in player base was no accident. Instead of altering the essence of Monster Hunter to cater to Western tastes, Tsujimoto and the team found ways to make the series' unique and sometimes complex nature more accessible to a wider audience without compromising its core. This approach continues with the latest installment, Monster Hunter Wilds.

"At its heart, Monster Hunter really is an action game, and that sense of accomplishment you get from really mastering that action is an important aspect of Monster Hunter," Tsujimoto explains. "But for newer players, it's really getting to that point. The steps involved in getting to that sense of accomplishment is really what we're trying to strategize for, in terms of designing for new players. So with World and Rise, for example, we were taking great care to analyze where players got stuck, what was hard to understand, what they were having trouble with, getting player feedback, and also doing our own kind of research into that. And all of that kind of knowledge has impacted how we've implemented new systems into Wilds."

Within 35 minutes of its release, Monster Hunter Wilds reached 738,000 concurrent players on Steam, more than double Monster Hunter: World's all-time high. With glowing reviews and the promise of more content to come, it seems highly likely that Monster Hunter Wilds will continue the series' mission to conquer the world.