If you’re like… well, just about everyone I know who wants to play Monster Hunter World, then you’re wishing the PC version was coming out on January 26th alongside the console release. Unfortunately it’s not, and until today we really had no reason why.
Ryozo Tsujimoto, Monster Hunter World producer, had this to say to PC Gamer / Gamesradar.
“For the main Monster Hunter game, this is our first PC title,” said Tsujimoto, “and it’s something we want to make sure we get right. So rather than have it taking up resources during the console development and not it not being able to have our full attention on it, we want to get console out the door and then we’re going to take some extra time and try and get the PC version as good as possible.”
While we can at least pretend we now know why the PC release is delayed until Fall (at the earliest, mind you), I’m left feeling significantly empty inside over the reason why.
It makes some semblance of sense. They want to make the PC version as good as possible, and this clearly means it wasn’t. What about it wasn’t, though? There aren’t many things that would have separated the two versions.
Multiplayer – Makes sense. Matchmaking can be quite different in a P2P environment. Consoles match-make inherently well (or not, but whatever) and PC matchmaking could be a struggle without Steam dependability.
Interface – Console interfaces are drastically different, and often feel horribly clunky on a PC. Yet Monster Hunter World’s UI feels clunky to me anyway, even on its core platform. Dpad cycling, up and down menus, etc., it’s meh. I think PC would actually help the problem.
Performance / Optimization – This is where I can see the biggest setbacks. Back in the day, the biggest reason why people didn’t release on PC was the argument that it was really hard to optimize for so many different hardware configurations. I won’t pretend to have a clue about whether or not this is still as bad as it was, but I have to believe that somewhere along the way in the past 12 years someone realized a solution.
It’s truly a port in every way – This combined a big portion of performance / optimization, but from a different angle. It’s truly a port. It was made for consoles. It’s a console game. It wasn’t meant for PC, really. It’ll release on PC, but it’ll thrive on consoles. This happens to many games these days. Some games port (simultaneously or not) and thrive greater on a PC than they ever did on console. I don’t know that this will be the case here.
I’m getting the PS4 version. If you have both, I recommend you do the same. Nothing will be gained by waiting that you won’t lose ten fold in other ways. The hype will be for consoles, the company is clearly prioritizing the console market, and you’ll have the best overall game release experience on a console.
Supporting multiple PC hardware is still complex. It can be rather easy if you are using 3rd party graphic/physics motor ( think Source, Unreal, Crytek…) or very complex the more you develop internally – and even more if you have used specific console trick.
The second big difficulty is to support proper mouse & keyboard gameplay. Some games do not really try ( shadow of mordor, devil may cry) and some are pretty good ( metal gear). Somes are good with mods ( skyrim). Gamepad exist on PC but after years of playing PC only, using a gamepad make the game really difficult for me to learn – tough enough i stop playing after 2-3 hours. Now i no longer buy a game if M&K is not a good way to play.
This is, honestly, why I reserve my hype for a game until its closer to release (on the platform I’m getting it on). While everyone joins the bandwagon of “its cool, the wait is worth the polish!” I’m sort of tired of games being announced super early and then having a rather empty response when it comes to the game being delayed.
I’m not saying how I feel is ‘right,’ just putting it out there. I compare it to my experience in ‘Black Desert Online.” They release new classes here and there, and the wait can be 3-6 months before we even see a release for NA. I got burned out very quickly getting ‘hyped’ for classes I was seeing the Korean servers get, and that hype eventually led to my overall dissent with the way content is released for the MMO (whereas that wasn’t present before).
I’m still looking forward to it, though. Not necessarily Monster Hunter on PC, but the hope that it does well so other companies hop on board and start a genre that is far too under-represented on the PC.
This is a genre of games that is really underrepresented by copy cats. Not that I love the idea of copying a game, but we really do not see many games like it — especially on PC. There have been Final Fantasy and a few other similar games on 3Ds and other consoles, but nothing on PC that I can think of other than Dauntless — and we know how that turned out.
Toukiden 2 and God Eater 2 Rage Burst are both on steam and unlike Final Fantasy (assume you mean Crystal Chronicles) are actually good games on console at least and much closer to MH and are considered 2 of the better games in the hunting game Genre after MH itself. At least on console, haven’t played the PC versions.
Dauntless is actually a decent game with a pretty decent following as well. Not wildly successful but they are continuing development and had a huge update in December for the closed beta.
As for the PC release being delayed, its understandable considering this team has never done a PC monster hunter before. Frontier is done by a completely different team and is more MMO than this game, and Monster Hunter Online is made by Tencent with the license bought from Capcom.
They have no clue about how to adjust for keyboard and mouse controls, how to do matchmaking when not on a console, etc.
Also this team is known for overestimating the time needed for things as well so it’s quite possible it could be before fall.