Niantic’s Monster Hunter Now Brings the Hunt to the Real World
Today, CAPCOM announced Monster Hunter Now, a mobile game created by Niantic for iOS and Android devices. Monster Hunter Now will take advantage of Niantic's proven location-based technology to usher the hunt into the real world. The press release is extremely scant on details, though it does say it'll be possible to join other players for cooperative hunts and also clarifies that monsters encountered while the app was closed will still be able to be hunted at a later time.
Either you or your companion will be able 'catch' a monster with an item called Paintball so that it can be hunted alone or in co-op at home. Monster Hunter Now is targeting a September launch, while a closed beta test begins on April 25th. Signups are available now on the official website.
Monster Hunter Now is far from the first franchise game released for mobile devices. Monster Hunter Dynamic Hunting launched in 2011 on iOS, followed by Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (an enhanced version of Monster Hunter Freedom 2) in 2014, Monster Hunter Explore in 2015 (on both iOS and Android), and more recently by 2020's Monster Hunter Riders (again available on both iOS and Android).
Clearly, CAPCOM is seeking to capitalize its newest golden egg goose (Monster Hunter World became by far the best-selling game ever released by the Japanese company, and Monster Hunter Rise is no slouch, either) on the mobile market with the help of Niantic's proven location-based technology. That said, while Pokémon Go was an incredible success, Niantic's subsequent releases didn't garner the same excitement.
Harry Potter: Wizards Unite similarly offered players the chance to encounter the fantastic beasts imagined by J.K. Rowling in the real world, but the game failed to catch on
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