I Finally Have An Explanation For Monster Hunter Wilds’ Broken Release

As has been the case with Capcom in recent years, Monster Hunter Wilds had a PC port on release, but the quality of the port leaves quite a lot to be desired. Strangely, poor ports aren’t always a problem with Capcom, since the RE engine Resident Evil games (anything RE7: Biohazard onward) tend to perform well, while other titles using the same engine suffer by comparison. MH Wilds‘ port isn’t entirely inoperable, and since it performs well enough with high-end PCs, the port’s issue looks to be optimization only, something that MH World also suffered from.

This begs the question as to why the port was made to launch at the same time as the console versions, since Monster Hunter games typically require PC players to wait for the port to hit Steam. The port will eventually be worked on enough to be optimized for mid-range PCs which fulfill the recommended system requirements, but Capcom could have delayed the PC release until it was in better shape, since the ports for the other games came later anyway. A reason for this could be found in the company’s financial report issued at the end of January.

The Game Released A Month Before The End Of The Fiscal Year

Monster Hunter has found quite a home on PC, and Capcom makes a lot of money from its PC player base. In a financial report issued by Capcom, it showed that on December 31st 2024 the company was shy of its projected net sales for March 31st 2025 (end of the Japanese fiscal year) by quite some way. In December 2024, the company had made 88,853 million yen from its net sales thus far, and is projected to make 165,000 million yen at the end of the fiscal year. Capcom had to make up considerable ground in three months.

Capcom is based in Osaka and was founded in 1979.

This is where MH Wilds comes into the picture, releasing at the end of February (about a month before the end of the fiscal year). Wilds became the fastest-selling title in Capcom’s history, selling 8 million copies in three days, and although the PS5 copies contributed to this heavily, PC sales likely made up a considerable chunk of this, since the Steam player numbers peaked at 1.3 million concurrent players. MH Wilds‘ sales would have helped make up the difference and helped Capcom achieve its projected targets, although this may have come at a cost for PC players.

Monster Hunter‘s ports haven’t been great on PC historically, and this is something that the team clearly struggled with given the save-deletion issues of Iceborne and the state that MH World was released in. Ordinarily, Capcom may have put off a PC port for later to make sure it was released in a decent state, especially after complaints about MH Wilds‘ open beta performance, but the game was released just before the end of the fiscal year. To hit projected targets and prevent downsizing, Capcom needed the game to launch on PC to get the sales numbers.

Dragon’s Dogma 2’s PC Port Might Have Suffered For The Same Reason

DD2’s PC Port Left A Lot To Be Desired

Custom Image by Katarina Cimbaljevic

Monster Hunter isn’t the only Capcom series that has suffered from some bad PC ports. Dragon’s Dogma 2 had horrible issues on PC, and unlike MH Wilds, these issues seemed to affect players randomly, rather than being purely optimization. Dragon’s Dogma 2 also continues the trend of releasing before the end of the fiscal year (releasing on March 23rd), meaning that its poor port might have been rushed to help hit financial targets as well, or at least be part of that fiscal year’s releases.

Monster Hunter Wilds hunters with every weapon in the game

Monster Hunter Wilds: Weapons Difficulty Tier List

In Monster Hunter Wilds, 14 different weapons exist, some with complex systems to learn while others are easy to start using on hunts immediately.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 did reasonably well (not MH Wilds well, but sold 2.5 million in eleven days) and would have helped that fiscal year to look better on reports. Then again, it should be noted that Capcom had higher net sales in December 2023 than in December 2024 (106,179 million yen in 2023 and 88,853 million in 2024), so Dragon’s Dogma 2‘s release likely wasn’t as vital to meeting that year’s projected targets. Still, DD2 was probably a reason as to why the targets were so high for the 24/25 fiscal year.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 isn’t actually the second game in the series, with Dragon’s Dogma Online releasing in 2015.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 and MH Wilds did very well on PC despite their PC port performances, and the port for DD2 was eventually fixed. From March 31st to December 31st 2024, only Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess and Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics were released. While this time period likely benefited from DD2‘s sales somewhat, it shows that the 24/25 fiscal year relies on MH Wilds as Capcom’s big release in that time period to meet the lofty goals set after last year’s performance. It looks like MH Wilds was able to achieve those goals too.

The Poor Port Hasn’t Affected MH Wilds’ Success

And It Could Set A Dangerous Precedent For Other Companies

A shocked Palico and a PC in front of the Windward Plains In Monster Hunter Wilds — By Katarina Cimbaljevic

No matter what people believe about Capcom’s strange microtransactions and its PC port quality, there’s no denying that the studio has been nailing its games for quite some time now. People have called this Capcom’s golden era, beginning with RE7: Biohazard and only Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite was a significant setback up until now. Almost everything Capcom has touched has turned to gold, at least as far as the quality of its games is concerned, and MH Wilds‘ success is the epitome of that in spite of its flaws.

Monster Hunter Wilds Genma and Alma looking up at a Rathian

10 New Monster Hunter Wilds Features Most People Probably Missed

Monster Hunter Wilds has so many new features and mechanics that it can be hard to keep track of them all on a single playthrough, even for veterans.

Despite its controversy and poor PC port, which should get fixed if prior titles in the series are an indication of what is to come, MH Wilds is breaking records for Steam and PlayStation. This could be a dangerous thing for PC players, since other companies might not bother with optimizing their PC ports after seeing MH Wilds‘ incredible success. It could get to the point where studios don’t bother fixing them later either, since they have already benefited from the initial boom in sales of the launch. Most games won’t have Monster Hunter‘s post-release content.

The success of Monster Hunter Wilds is a testament to how well Capcom has been doing ever since its dark period before the development of RE7 and the RE engine. Despite making games for niche audiences, Capcom titles have been finding a home everywhere, and the typical Monster Hunter post-release routine should fix performance issues over time while providing more content. Still, a poor PC port at launch is a common problem and something that Capcom seems guilty of more often than not, despite its successes on Steam.

Source: Capcom