Monster Hunter Wilds took a 'huge gamble' - but that's what made it so popular

A huge gamble taken by Capcom with Monster Hunter Wilds is why the game has proven so popular, according to the series' producer.

Monster Hunter Wilds is the latest entry in the hugely successful action role-playing game series and it sold more than eight million copies in its first three days after releasing on February 28, making it the fastest selling game of all time for the studio and publisher.

It has since emerged the game has had the biggest physical launch of any PS5 game released in Japan so far with more than 600,000 physical copies (601,179) in its first week alone, which is excluding digital and PC sales, according to sales figures from Japanese magazine Famitsu.

Monster Hunter Wilds hit a concurrent player peak of more than 1.38m over the first weekend of its release on Steam, which is the fifth highest figure achieved by any game on that specific platform.

It also helped Steam to hit more than 40m concurrent players across all of its games for the very first time too.

And the series' producer has revealed why they think Monster Hunter Wilds has proved such a huge hit.

Monster Hunter Wilds has been the fastest selling Capcom game of all time / Screenshot from Capcom

Speaking to Japanese publication Nikkei (as spotted by Automaton), managing executive officer of Capcom Ryozo Tsujimoto, who is also the producer of the series, said: "We put weight on the story and increased the sense of immersion with the voices in the game.

"We made it possible to play in conjunction with different game consoles."

Monster Hunter Wilds is the game in the series that has the biggest focus on its story and although there have been story elements in previous games, which continued to be developed through Monster Hunter World in 2018, Capcom took something of a gamble by making this a much bigger focus in the new game.

The series already has such a huge fanbase that changing anything from the tried and tested formula can be considered a gamble as it's moving the series in a different direction to what has already made it so popular.

But Tsujimoto says this, as well as cross-play and immersion, are what have really resonated with players. The game's popularity seems to be having all sorts of effects, including on PS5 rentals in Japan and the sale of cheese naans.

The game continues to be developed by Capcom and a key update recently went live with lots of bug fixes and improvements.

For more from indy100, check out our best 100 video games of all time and our recent review of Monster Hunter Wilds.

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