Capcom’s biggest seller in the last few years, and a constant source of stability for them that has kept them afloat even as the rest of the company has experienced a lot of turbulence thanks to the changing landscape of the industry, has been Monster Hunter– a franchise that is basically guaranteed to sell 3-4 million units worldwide at a minimum, with minimal development costs thanks to being on handhelds.
Which is why, as exciting as Monster Hunter World looks, the finances of it make no sense- the game is being made on higher end consoles, at significantly larger costs, and its sales are bound to take a hit as Monster Hunter‘s most successful territory is Japan, where consoles simply do not sell and cannot support the kind of numbers it usually moves (without getting into the fact that the reason for its popularity so far has been the ability for people on the move to engage in local co-op, which you cannot do on consoles).
And indeed, it looks like analysts expect its sales to be far lower than previous Monster Hunter games, too- apparently, BGC Partners believe the game will have sales of 1.5 million worldwide, though apparently it is a ‘cautious’ estimate. Meanwhile, another Marvel game, Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite, is expected to sell 2 million worldwide.
The 1.5 million number and 2 million number are both rather low- I do hope that both games far outperform those expectations, especially Monster Hunter, which looks fantastic, and deserves to do well. Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite launches next month, while Monster Hunter World launches early next year, both for PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
BGC Partners Anvarzadeh: Marvel vs Capcom Infinite (2mn copies) and MH World (with a very cautious estimate of 1.5mn units);
— Takashi Mochizuki (@6d6f636869) August 21, 2017
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