Having previously worked in the realms of Pokemon, Harry Potter and Pikmin, Niantic has announced that its next project will be in collaboration with Capcom’s Monster Hunter series.
After dominating the world with the launch of Pokemon Go back in 2016, Niantic has been gunning for a similar level of success ever since. It struggled to do so with the likes of Harry Potter: Wizards Unite and Pikmin Bloom, it would be fair to say, but that could be about to change thanks to its new partnership with Capcom. Monster Hunter Now is the next game to get the Niantic treatment, set to launch as an AR game on mobile devices later this year.
Niantic revealed Monster Hunter Now’s existence in a new interview with Gamesindustry.biz, where chief product officer Kei Kawai cited the similarities between the Monster Hunter and Pokemon franchises. "The series is all about collecting with friends, playing as a family, and making new friends,” he said. “That's been a really important part of the IP for nearly two decades. The notion of majestic monsters roaming around the neighbourhood and cities was extremely compelling as a new real-world game."
It was also revealed that Monster Hunter Now has been in the works for quite some time, apparently being in some sort of development for just under four years. This just about lines up with the launch of Monster Hunter World in 2018, the first global mega-hit in the series for Capcom, lauded for just how accessible it made the monster-hunting format for Western audiences. Monster Hunter Now is no doubt hoping to capitalise on this momentum continued with Monster Hunter Rise, and then its 2022 Sunbreak DLC.
Monster Hunter Now is set to release on iOS and Android devices as early as September, but players lucky enough to enter into the beta program can get a taste of what Niantic has cooked up on Tuesday, April 25 . Only 10,000 people will be approved; sign-ups for the beta are open now on the official Monster Hunter Now website.
Gotta hunt em all
The Pokemon franchise has been so far in the toilet for its past couple of mainline entries, any franchise stepping up to recapture the magic of the classic Gameboy games is fine by me. We’ve already seen this happen in the console space when Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin was released in 2021 as the far superior creature-catching option, in my opinion, over Pokemon Sword and Shield. It looked prettier, had a better story, and actually dared to have interesting characters. Anyway, I digress…
Monster Hunter Now, if handled correctly, could quite rightly come for Pokemon’s crown within the mobile space. Niantic has obviously proved it knows how to make a successful AR game through its previous efforts, but what Harry Potter: Wizards Unite lacked was the core creature collection concept that Pokemon Go adapted so well. The Monster Hunter series definitely shares some similarities with this, but it still needs to be packaged correctly.
The truth is that Monster Hunter doesn’t have the same nostalgia factor here in the West as Pokemon does, and so it’d be foolish to assume that it’ll reach similar levels of success. That said, Niantic is right to capitalise on Capcom’s continued success with its once very niche series, which will hopefully inspire veteran and casual players alike to go outside yet again to play with others in a unique and worthwhile way.
