Shuhei Yoshida Remembers Scariest Moment for Sony, When Nintendo Signed Monster Hunter As a 3DS Exclusive | Push Square

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While the PS Vita will go down as a commercial failure, its prospects weren’t that bad when it was announced. Yes, smartphone gaming was getting bigger at the time, but Sony matched the price of the Nintendo 3DS with a much more powerful machine, and the PSP had been hugely successful, selling over 80 million units.

But everything changed when Monster Hunter 4 was announced as a Nintendo 3DS exclusive.

The series had been wildly successful on the PSP, with Monster Hunter Portable 3rd selling almost five million units on the system alone.

In an interview with Minnmax, former executive Shuhei Yoshida recalled the moment the series switched allegiances, describing it as one of the scariest and most shocking moments of his tenure.

“At the launch, both the 3DS and the PS Vita were $250, but [Nintendo] dropped the price by $100,” he groaned. “I was like, ‘Oh my God.’ Then they announced the biggest game on the PSP, Monster Hunter, was coming out on the Nintendo 3DS as an exclusive. That was the biggest shock!”

Sony, in response, attempted to create various Monster Hunter alternatives, like Soul Sacrifice and Freedom Wars, the latter of which got a remaster last month. But it could never really recover, and the 3DS went on to dominate the handheld market against the floundering PS Vita.

Yoshida went on to explain that he understood how the deal may have materialised. “From a publisher’s perspective, they don’t want one company to be dominant,” he explained. “They want competition among the platforms so everyone remains honest and keeps trying harder.”

Monster Hunter would of course eventually return to PlayStation, with Monster Hunter World on the PS4 becoming the publisher’s best-selling game of all time. Later this month, it’ll release Monster Hunter Wilds on the PS5, which is expected to enjoy similar success.

But while the PS Vita had many hurdles to overcome, there’s no doubt Capcom’s decision to release Monster Hunter as a 3DS exclusive put a nail in the portable’s