A logical debate (Something extra announced)

First topic message reminder :

There are currently 14 Monster Hunter Games released, only 6 of which have been released outside of Japan to the West. Now part of the reasoning that more MH games such as 3G are not being released to the west is their lack of popularity, well that is a bit confusing to me and here is why.

The first MH game to be released outside of Japan was Monster Hunter on the PS2. I don't really have much information on the sales in the West for this game. It was released in 2004 the next consol MH game for the west would not be released in the west Until 2010, 6 years later. Japan would get 4 other consol MH games before then.

The US would get 3 PSP games yes but lets face it consol games are always more popular (especially in the west) than portable systems.

The PSP sold roughly 30+ million units in EU/US regions (actually higher than that) but of course you would not exspect everyone who owns a PSP to buy MH as well. And Unite which was the last MH game to come out for the PSP was released in 2009. Over 3 years ago. The popularity of the PSP has been dieing down for a while so the sales of Unite I am sure were affected as well.

Now lets look at MHDH for the Iphone. Though no accurate information for it is listed, it has been given 117 reviews and 4 stars and online a lot of good reviews have been given to it. But of course it can't really account as a full MH game.

Any ways the point. The only current system that monster hunter has been released on outside of Japan has been the Wii with MHTri, and has sold 690,000 sales (US & EU combined) as of July 30, 2010. Lets compare that to other Wii exclusive games.

Tri released April 2010 and sold 690,000 copies in the US and EU in about 3 months. Super Mario Galaxy 2 was released in May/June 2010 and sold 1 million copies in the US in about 3 months. Roughly 400,000 copies more than the combined EU/US sales of tri in the same time frame around the same time. At first glance that may not seem impresive for Tri but when you think about it, that is actually really good.. Tri competed against Nintendos bigest seller and still sold well in the same time frame. Also tri was advertised a lot less and was more of a word of mouth type game in many areas mostly being advertised over the internet in many EU markets where SMG2 had a huge marketing ploy everywhere and was even sold with many systems.

So that leads me to the question. Why is 3G which is also on a Nintendo system not already being released in the west? The biggest response is that MH is not popular in the west. The only other system to really compare that to is another Nintendo system and the one game released in the west which is tri and it was over all pretty popular. Also with 3G being a direct sequal to tri and on a nintendo system as well you would think that it would also sale well. The 3DS has already sold over 4 Million Units in the US in less than a year (not sure about the EU sales) and MH4 is on it's way for the 3DS as well, wouldn't the release of 3G in the west have increased sales due to Tri from the Wii and wouldn't it also be a good time for a re-release of tri increasing sales of both games? Also wouldn't a western release of 3G also drum up popularity for future sales of MH4?


I would really like to hear others thoughts on this as well. I am sure I may be missing quite a bit and would like to know what. So thanks in advance.


I am also permiting talk on western releases of 3G here as long as it stays to why it would be a good reason and not just ("OMG I want this game" and "Capcom better release it here" and "They better add online").

dcj91x wrote:

^Honestly, if they skip 3G for the west, it is likely we could get MH4 a lot sooner than we normally would most other MH games. Instead of the "normal" 9 month wait we could actually see a close release of MH4 worldwide. Probably within a few months everywhere. But this is speculation of course based on how well 3G sold for this past christmas and again it all depends on if they do release 3G in the west or not. If they release it we will see the long wait for MH4, if they do Not release 3G we could possibly get MH4 at or close to the same time as Japan and with the addition of online play. But I would not get my hopes up as the only thing that has been said about MH4 yet is a winter 2012 release date in Japan which is subject to change.

1. I'm pretty sure the people that would work with localization (online aside) would be separate from the people working on MH4, so it would only delay America's MH4 in an attempt to space out games better.

2. I doubt they'd try a worldwide release of MH4 if they're concerned about western sales.

3. If they release 3G in the west (as opposed to just waiting and dishing out MH4), we'd get a new MH game sooner than if they just released MH4.

Though with spacing out the games, that will cause a split between people who play 3G and people who play 4 (if they both have online, that is).

Jader7777 wrote:

Arakune wrote:

Jader7777 wrote:

Capcom are terrified of money and success.

>money and success
>MH in the west
That was funny, dude.

Like a fox.

The 3DS has little in the way of games, consumers are more than likely to pick up any title for the system, 'speshully if theres a huge dragon and swords on the front cover. If Capcom acts faster they could have the launch window monopoly.

I'm pretty sure the only reason they hesitate is because of already strained budgets they cope with after the GFC.

That never worked for previous MH titles, bro. MH is a niche game outside of Japan. People will buy brown'n bloom shooter n°4838928 instead.
And just now 3DS is receiving more games than ever, so i don't think it has "little".

What you say is true, but this is the 3DS not the PS3 or Xbox 360 or PC or Leapfrog Leapster.

Just look at the 3DS's current best sellers:

- Mario Kart
- Super Mario 3D
- Nintendogs + Cats
- Zelda OoT 3DS

They're pretty much the only games that have cracked 1 million in sales. Monster Hunter in Japan alone is about to join that list.

What do you think the demographic of the 3DS is now? It's people who don't care if a game is 'Japanesey' or weird or a continuation of a popular series.

When a console is launched the games that are launched with the console always
always get better sales than any other time of the consoles life, because really who buys a console without any games? No one, that's who. Or people who want to scalp them on Ebay. Anyway,

Monster Hunter could easily be a sale success but their window of opportunity is slowly shrinking.