14 DAY TRIAL // Capcom has officially announced that it is working on Monster Hunter 3, a new game in the franchise set to arrive on the PlayStation Portable from Sony, and that it plans to release it, at least on the Japanese market, before the end of the year. The company says that it plans to expand the game universe and to innovate on some of the core mechanics with the new iteration, which will please long time fans while also aiming to attract new gamer blood to the series.
New regions will be introduced, all filled with previously unseen enemies to fight. The Felyne system, which governs the way Artificial Intelligence controlled team mates, is also set to be tweaked to make the companions more useful in battle. The game will get the usual graphical update and fans can also look forward to using some fresh weapons and items.
Capcom is quite busy making 2010 the year of the Monster Hunter franchise. For the first time, North America will get a taste of the series, with Monster Hunter Tri, which is being launched on the Nintendo Wii, being outed on April 20 and with the Monster Hunter Frontier title coming to the Xbox 360 in Japan at some point during the summer.
These are both rather risky moves for Capcom, considering that North American gamers might not be caught up in the Monster Hunter phenomenon and considering the limited install base of the Microsoft home console in Japan.
The announcement of Monster Hunter 3 for the PSP, which will be mainly aimed at Japanese players, provides some security for the company. The previous PlayStation Portable release, Monster Hunter Freedom Unite, was launched in March 2008 in Japan and managed to break all the records by selling 3.5 million copies. Capcom is probably hoping that the newly announced game will equal that performance.