Summary
Summer 2024 is closing in, and with it comes the promise of moreMonster Hunter Wildsnews. Announced in December 2023 through a gameplay teaser,Monster Hunter Wildscaused a large stir in theMHcommunity. Fans flocked back toMonster Hunter WorldandMonster Hunter Rise, both of which had wrapped their post-launch support, and even propelledMonster Hunter Worldto new sales milestones in the process. Love forMonster Hunteris still going strong after its fifth generation made it a global hit, andWildsis set to keep the hot streak going.
Monster Hunter Wilds’ summer news update is the next step in that process, though it’s not just the IP’s strength that has fans anticipating it. The game’s reveal trailer hinted at a lot of new features, but didn’t confirm or contextualize anything for sure.Wilds’ new mount is probably replacingMH Rise’s Palamutes, but what they do differently isn’t clear yet. Raised monster density, weather effects, and a wider play space were also teased, but it’s unknown how this will affectMonster Hunter’s consistent gameplay loop. Capcom will likely focus on that inMH Wilds’ next showing, but it should also confirm a fan-requested feature on the way.
Monster Hunter Has Yet To Add Cross-Platform Multiplayer
Back in late 2021, Capcom released aMonster Huntersurvey, meant to gather feedback for the upcomingMonster Hunter Rise Sunbreakexpansion. It included prominent questions about implementing cross-play and cross-saves betweenMH Rise’s Switch and PC versions, something fans were enthusiastic about as expected. Unfortunately, it only took a couple of weeks for Capcom to retract this, with a social media post explaining that staff had looked intoadding cross-play toMonster HunterthroughoutRise’s development and found it couldn’t be implemented at the moment.Monster Hunter Riseeventually spread to all contemporary platforms, but hopes for any kind of cross-platform support were crushed.
Why this decision was made has not been revealed, but the wording implied that Capcom did have these features in mind duringRise’s development, and something didn’t work out. Modern Capcom fans may have an inkling of what that was, now thatResident Evil Re:Verse,Street Fighter 6, andExoprimalhave incorporated Capcom ID. All three are recent Capcom titles running on the RE Engine, whichMonster Hunteralso uses, and support cross-platform multiplayer.Exoprimalneeded to reach its fourth seasonfor comprehensive cross-platform squad multiplayer like players wanted, but it got there, and that means good things forMonster Hunter Wilds.
Monster Hunter Wilds Is Perfectly Suited For Cross-Play
After bothMonster Hunter WorldandRisemissed out on cross-play,Wildsgetting it is a big deal. Cooperative multiplayer is one of the foundational pillars of theMonster Hunterfranchise, but the series has been slow to adapt to its fifth generation games launching on multiple skews that needed extra legwork to play together. Going into the sixth generation,Monster Hunter Wildscan finally allow friend groupsusing different platforms to group up and hunt together at their leisure, restoring one of its main strengths to its former glory.
