Immediately, March 14, marks an vital day for Capcom and Niantic’s Monster Hunter Now, particularly the title’s six-month anniversary, reached by success after roaring success.
Like many a fan of the franchise, I saved a watchful eye on this newest sequence entry by its incubation interval, joined the pre-registration get together, and waited eagerly for the autumnal hatchling to indicate what it actually needed to supply.
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 an enormous of the geolocation style, broadened model recognition, and supplied newcomers and veterans with a real cell encapsulation of the core gameplay components that solely continues to evolve with each replace.
Monster Hunter Now’s in truth 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 not too long ago risen to a powerful $150 million.
For Capcom, Now has meant a income increase in fact – the corporate introduced payrises throughout solely final week, in truth – however there’s extra to it than that. The continued publicity {that a} profitable, energetic cell sport offers filters into public consciousness and in the end helps develop an IP.
Add to this the frequent updates Now’s receiving – hitting all the precise cell beats with its introduction of latest 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 computerized win for advertising, with the potential to extend gross sales of primary sequence titles at present accessible 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 gives a small collection 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 combating 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; looking early monsters like Nice Jagras and Kulu-Ya-Ku internet gamers with totally 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 in search of particular hunts. Desire a bow with toxic arrows? Higher observe 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 the story, the number of monsters expands considerably with fan favourites like Legiana and Anjanath offering a larger problem and larger reward; the ultimate prize for finishing the preliminary story is a battle in opposition to 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 vital story development is one thing of an uncommon design selection 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 purpose why Now’s set up numbers slowed so considerably because the preliminary race to 10 million.
For these gamers who’re updated, nonetheless, Now offers a robust roster of monsters to hunt with over 20 species launched to this point. These give every participant loads of selection 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 wish to construct.
Searching a selected 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 components to improve weapons and forge new armour with higher expertise being a stronger incentive for me, at the least, 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’d argue Now’s 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 in opposition to mentioned monster in Now’s way 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 selected location, stopping there till the monster is defeated – nonetheless lengthy that will take – after which shifting on to the subsequent location.
Completely different weapons play in another way too, with my weapon of selection, the bow, making use of gyro controls. This renders strolling throughout a hunt virtually unattainable, since aiming the cellphone 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 exterior may be, promoting Paintballs as an answer. The merchandise may be launched at a monster, and that monster will then comply with the participant round to hunt from the consolation and comfort of house 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 may be caught in seconds, making it a handy informal aspect exercise throughout a stroll, however providing little to do from house moreover PvP. In fact, this isn’t to say Pokémon Go fails as a sport both – in truth it’s some of the profitable cell video games in historical past with billions of {dollars} behind it, partially resulting from its robust compatibility with the geolocation style.
A roaring success
In its first half-year, the overwhelming majority of Monster Hunter Now’s victories may be attributed to the Japanese playerbase, whom Capcom and Niantic knew to leverage from the phrase ‘go’. With promotional ways in full drive, Now turned Japan’s most downloaded free sport throughout its launch interval and was already Niantic’s second-biggest sport ever by the top 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 largest spenders, however its largest 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.
In reality, spending on the entire has slowed considerably – from $100 million in Now’s first three months to solely an additional $50 million within the subsequent three – however occasions have been happening 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.
Through the celebratory interval monster spawns have been way more frequent, giving gamers extra to do in-game with out including any vital burden on sport improvement workers, and limited-time monsters have returned over the previous fortnight to get gamers out looking 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 move beginning right this moment 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 move appears set to supply 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 a hit for Capcom, Niantic, and the Monster Hunter franchise at giant. 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.