On his stroll towards Niantic’s workplace within the Bay Space in the future, senior producer Sakae Osumi observed everybody staring up. There was an eclipse taking place, pretty much as good a motive as any to tilt again and gaze into the sky, however Osumi had one other thought: What if a staff engaged on a Monster Hunter–themed recreation might replicate the state of affairs—however commerce within the sun shades and celestial occasion for a cellphone and a large imply creature?
Monster Hunter Now is not only the reply to that exact query, however an even bigger, extra existential downside plaguing Niantic. In 2016, the cell developer captured lightning in a bottle when Pokémon Go mixed the corporate’s augmented actuality know-how with the mega-popular franchise, permitting gamers to embark on their very personal Pokémon journey wherever they had been. It was (and nonetheless is) a worldwide phenomenon: greater than 1 billion downloads and annual occasions the world over (and presumably tens of millions of {dollars} misplaced from gamers unwisely opting to play whereas driving).
Within the seven years since, Niantic has struggled to create new video games that may even catch a whiff of that success. This 12 months, the corporate laid off tons of of staff, canceled two tasks, and closed its Los Angeles workplace. In 2022, amid layoffs, Niantic canned 4 different video games, following the dismal efficiency of its 2019 miss, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. As gamers lose religion that Niantic can create—and maintain alive—video games based mostly on their favourite franchises, Monster Hunter Now, launching September 14, could also be its greatest shot for regaining goodwill. If a virtually 20-year-old, mega-popular sequence from Capcom doesn’t have the juice, it’s laborious to think about the place the corporate might efficiently go subsequent.
So, does Monster Hunter Now have what it takes? “I can not provide you with a greater reply than we expect it is a enjoyable recreation,” government producer Kei Kawai tells WIRED. “We constructed a enjoyable recreation.”
OK, positive. However it is a bit more advanced than that. From the outset, Kawai says, they sought to make one thing that wasn’t only a re-skin of Pokémon Go, even when it’s the firm’s most profitable recreation. Thematically, Niantic and Monster Hunter creator Capcom noticed the franchise as a superb match for real-world adventures and wished to discover a strategy to make {that a} actuality. However to take action, Kawai and the staff wished to sort out real-time motion. “It’s undoubtedly like a extra ‘gamey’ recreation than different titles that we’ve got constructed,” he says. “That was intentional.”
Kawai thinks about making video games in a multilayered strategy. Video games must be enjoyable, clearly, and so they must be thrilling and interesting. However additionally they have to problem gamers simply the correct quantity. “A recreation must really feel rewarding of your time so that you simply really feel that you simply’re getting greater than what you set in,” he says.
In a typical Monster Hunter recreation, taking down your prey is a grand affair that may final anyplace from 10 minutes to greater than an hour, relying on its dimension and your talent. Generally you’ll have to attempt it greater than as soon as to triumph. However for a cell recreation you may be taking part in exterior in the summertime solar, that’s lower than preferrred. The staff discovered that even three minutes felt too lengthy. Monster Hunter Now cuts encounters right down to 75 seconds.
You additionally don’t must be consistently hooked up to your display to play—excellent news for anybody who might have tumbled off a pier or two whereas targeted on their telephones throughout a PoGo jaunt. Palicoes, the sequence’ catlike companions, will discover monsters for you and seize these encounters for later by way of its “paintball” system. That approach you’ll be able to play while you’re house or at an workplace with buddies. “You possibly can maintain progressing whereas your cellphone is in your pocket, so we aren’t forcing gamers to take a look at the display,” Osumi says.
Video: Niantic
Video: Niantic
The staff wished to create a social environment for looking and capitalize on the fame Niantic has constructed for adventures. It encourages gamers to go exterior and meet folks; monsters are simpler to hunt while you’re with a staff, and with paintballs it can save you hunts to do later with buddies. “I feel this can be a essentially social franchise,” says Kawai.
It’ll must be—phrase of mouth could make or break a cell recreation. Regardless that the Monster Hunter viewers is big, not each huge franchise yields a wildly fashionable cell recreation. Niantic discovered this with Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. Nonetheless, after a couple of years of fumbles, the corporate wants to attain. As of Monday, greater than 3 million gamers had preregistered for Now, however that quantity is small in comparison with the worldwide phenomenon of Pokémon Go, which hit 500 million downloads inside its first 12 months.
Just a few video games are destined to change into chart toppers, and it’s attainable Niantic might by no means replicate the success it had with Pokémon Go. But Osumi is assured in what Monster Hunter Now brings to the desk, if solely to attraction to gamers’ baser instincts. “I feel this can be a recreation that feels pure to everybody, as a result of looking is type of in our DNA,” he says. Level, and lookup.