At this time, March 14, marks an vital day for Capcom and Niantic’s Monster Hunter Now, particularly the title’s six-month anniversary, reached by way of success after roaring success.
Like many a fan of the franchise, I stored a watchful eye on this newest sequence entry by way of its incubation interval, joined the pre-registration occasion, and waited eagerly for the autumnal hatchling to point out what it actually needed to provide.
The outcomes didn’t disappoint.
Six months later and Monster Hunter Now can already be referred to as an enormous win for its builders, having rapidly grown into a large of the geolocation style, broadened model recognition, and supplied newcomers and veterans with a real cell encapsulation of the core gameplay method that solely continues to evolve with each replace.
Monster Hunter Now could be in actual fact Niantic’s second-biggest sport, behind solely the frankly untouchable Pokémon Go; it soared to 10 million downloads in 5 weeks and $100 million in income in three months, and has just lately risen to a formidable $150 million.
For Capcom, Now has meant a income increase in fact – the corporate introduced payrises throughout solely final week, in actual fact – however there’s extra to it than that. The continuing publicity {that a} profitable, lively cell sport supplies filters into public consciousness and finally helps develop an IP.
Add to this the frequent updates Now could be receiving – hitting all the proper cell beats with its introduction of recent monsters, seasonal releases, and time-limited hunts – and gamers have many an incentive to maintain updated on the franchise; in flip, this heightened consciousness is an automated win for advertising, with the potential to extend gross sales of foremost sequence titles at present obtainable on PC and consoles.
Naturally, that is additionally certain to bolster gross sales of the upcoming 2025 title Monster Hunter Wilds.
On the hunt
Monster Hunter Now’s early-game solely provides a small number of monsters to combat who get more and more stronger as gamers progress – rising in star rankings to indicate problem and the elevated potential for rarer materials drops.
Whereas preventing the identical handful of monsters time and again wasn’t essentially the most thrilling begin for me personally, it does serve to familiarise gamers with the sequence’ core gameplay loop; searching early monsters like Nice Jagras and Kulu-Ya-Ku web gamers with completely different supplies that may be invested into weapons and armour – giving a bounty of customisation choices from helmets to hammers, gauntlets to longswords.
The craftable gear displays traits of the monster the supplies come from, and so begins to encourage gamers to exit on the lookout for particular hunts. Desire a bow with toxic arrows? Higher monitor down some extra Pukei-Pukei…
With this gameplay loop in thoughts, Monster Hunter Now exhibits gamers all of the monsters at present spawned of their space and precisely the place to go to seek out them; it encourages planning a stroll alongside an optimised path to hunt all a participant’s desired monsters.
And as gamers progress by way of the story, the number of monsters expands considerably with fan favourites like Legiana and Anjanath offering a better problem and better reward; the ultimate prize for finishing the preliminary story is a battle towards the face of the franchise, Rathalos, and as soon as victory has been claimed, gamers can tackle even harder challenges and take part in time-limited occasions just like the Black Diablos, Pink Rathian and Azure Rathalos hunts.
Gating these occasions behind important story development is one thing of an uncommon design alternative because it diminishes their skill to attract in new gamers (who will most likely miss the occasion monster that drew them in by the point they catch up), and could also be one motive why Now’s set up numbers slowed so considerably because the preliminary race to 10 million.
For these gamers who’re updated, nonetheless, Now supplies a robust roster of monsters to hunt with over 20 species launched up to now. These give every participant loads of alternative in what to focus their hunts on – in my case predominantly Pukei-Pukei, Rathian, and the event-only Azure Rathalos – relying on the gear they need to construct.
Searching a particular monster sufficient instances additionally nets gamers a medal of that monster, commemorating the achievement and aiding that sense of development. And encountering the identical creature time and again has extra tangible worth in Now than in Pokémon Go, with elements to improve weapons and forge new armour with higher expertise being a stronger incentive for me, no less than, than catching a number of of the identical Pokémon to earn sweet.
Rathalos vs Pikachu
Regardless of their stark gameplay variations, evaluating Monster Hunter Now with Pokémon Go is an inevitability when each are geolocation-based, AR-infused cell video games leveraging Japanese monster IPs.
And in evaluating them, I might argue Now could be extra enjoyable as a sport, however Go is the higher geolocation sport. In spite of everything, strolling doesn’t have any intrinsic in-game advantages in Now – you may see the place your goal monster is, shut the sport, head straight there, after which open the sport once more for the vital bit: the hunt.
Fight towards mentioned monster in Now could be rather more concerned than catching Pokémon, making for a extra thrilling gameplay expertise however not one the place a participant can realistically keep it up strolling whereas enjoying; this implies heading to a particular location, stopping there till the monster is defeated – nonetheless lengthy that will take – after which shifting on to the subsequent location.
Totally different weapons play in another way too, with my weapon of alternative, the bow, making use of gyro controls. This renders strolling throughout a hunt virtually unattainable, since aiming the telephone on the proper angle is so intrinsic to touchdown hits and even seeing the goal monster; frankly, gameplay is tactile and exact whereas standing on the spot, however rapidly falls aside on the transfer.
And Niantic clearly understands the inconvenience enjoying Now outdoors will be, promoting Paintballs as an answer. The merchandise will be launched at a monster, and that monster will then comply with the participant round to hunt from the consolation and comfort of residence at a later date – at which level the aim of Now as a geolocation sport is considerably misplaced.
In Pokémon Go, in the meantime, Pokémon will be caught in seconds, making it a handy informal facet exercise throughout a stroll, however providing little to do from residence in addition to PvP. In fact, this isn’t to say Pokémon Go fails as a sport both – in actual fact it’s one of the vital profitable cell video games in historical past with billions of {dollars} behind it, partly on account of its robust compatibility with the geolocation style.
A roaring success
In its first half-year, the overwhelming majority of Monster Hunter Now’s victories will be attributed to the Japanese playerbase, whom Capcom and Niantic knew to leverage from the phrase ‘go’. With promotional ways in full pressure, Now grew to become Japan’s most downloaded free sport throughout its launch interval and was already Niantic’s second-biggest sport ever by the tip of September. Japanese participant spending accounted for 67.3% of the income at the moment, a proportion that has since elevated to 71%.
Japan doesn’t solely home Now’s greatest spenders, however its greatest playerbase too, with 35% of downloads coming from the area. The US viewers is in second with 15% of downloads however solely 6% of spending in these first six months.
Actually, spending on the entire has slowed considerably – from $100 million in Now’s first three months to solely an extra $50 million within the subsequent three – however occasions have been going down all through March for Now’s half-year anniversary and for the Monster Hunter franchise’s twentieth, providing a golden alternative to show this again round.
Throughout the celebratory interval monster spawns have been way more frequent, giving gamers extra to do in-game with out including any important burden on sport improvement employees, and limited-time monsters have returned over the previous fortnight to get gamers out searching much more for uncommon assets; I for one was glad to lastly forge the notorious Black Diablos Bow.
Monster Hunter Now has additionally built-in a battle cross beginning at this time as a part of an enormous new seasonal replace, which ought to deliver constant earnings to the sport as gamers earn rewards they will’t really settle for with out paying. This battle cross seems to be set to offer much more content material and challenges, with a free tier to make sure everybody sees the paid tier – and what rewards they could possibly be incomes in the event that they paid up.
All in all, it’s been an enormous first six months for Monster Hunter Now, and the sport has irrefutably confirmed successful for Capcom, Niantic, and the Monster Hunter franchise at massive. For now, I’ll be busy tackling the most recent anniversary content material with my new bow, and ready patiently for Garangolm, Tigrex and Astalos to make the transfer onto cell.
