Capcom’s Monster Hunter: World just released last week, and it has been subject to heavy praise. Even with the large gap between the console and PC release of the title, sale and shipments have been performing phenomenally. According to Takashi Mochizuki of the Wall Street Journal, and Capcom Japan’s official website, over 5 million copies have been shipped worldwide for both the physical and digital launch of the game.
This news comes as a huge achievement for the series, since it has never produced such a rapidly selling title since its inception. It also marks the first time that a Monster Hunter game has been on a home console in Japan for nine years, and 8 years for western audiences. With such a huge boom in game sales, the PC launch planned to come later this year, and free lifelong updates, Monster Hunter: World might just surpass the best selling entry in the series, Monster Hunter, which holds a 45 million copies record.
In addition to the growing records, Capcom plans on teaming up with Hollywood to possibly create Monster Hunter movies, have real life Monster Hunter attractions at Universal Japan, but most certainly and in the near future, host Monster Hunter competitions across Japan. In the spring of 2018, Capcom will host the “Wing Determination Battle to preliminary rounds in the nationwide seven districts and decide the best hunter in [the country of Japan].”
Despite the positive future for Monster Hunter: World, there has been one major complaint in the community, although small in the long run. At the moment, some people have noted that the character they created at the beginning of the game is not similar to the model used in game. Since there are limited ways to further change a character’s appearance, this has caused some complaints in the community. The issue has been brought to Ryozo Tsujimoto’s attention, and he stated that if there is enough demand for a character do-over, he will put the idea into consideration for the future. Until then, players will have to carefully make sure that their character looks just right with the expression feature at character creation.
Monster Hunter: World is now available for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One worldwide.