On his stroll towards Niantic’s workplace within the Bay Area at some point, senior producer Sakae Osumi seen everybody staring up. There was an eclipse taking place, nearly as good a purpose as any to tilt again and gaze into the sky, however Osumi had one other thought: What if a workforce engaged on a Monster Hunter–themed recreation may replicate the scenario—however commerce within the sun shades and celestial occasion for a cellphone and an enormous imply creature?
Monster Hunter Now isn’t just the reply to that exact query, however a much 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 expertise with the mega-popular franchise, permitting gamers to embark on their very personal Pokémon journey wherever they have been. It was (and nonetheless is) a worldwide phenomenon: greater than 1 billion downloads and annual occasions internationally (and presumably thousands and thousands of {dollars} misplaced from gamers unwisely opting to play whereas driving).
In 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 a whole lot of employees, canceled two initiatives, 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 finest shot for regaining goodwill. If an almost 20-year-old, mega-popular sequence from Capcom doesn’t have the juice, it’s exhausting to think about the place the corporate may efficiently go subsequent.
So, does Monster Hunter Now have what it takes? “I cannot give you a better answer than we think it’s a fun game,” govt producer Kei Kawai tells WIRED. “We built a fun game.”
OK, certain. But it’s a little extra 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 match for real-world adventures and needed to discover a technique to make {that a} actuality. But to take action, Kawai and the workforce needed to sort out real-time motion. “It is definitely like a more ‘gamey’ game than other titles that we have built,” he says. “That was intentional.”
Kawai thinks about making video games in a multilayered strategy. Games have to be enjoyable, clearly, and so they have to be thrilling and interesting. But additionally they must problem gamers simply the correct quantity. “A game needs to feel rewarding of your time so that you feel that you’re getting more than what you put 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 ability. Sometimes you’ll must strive it greater than as soon as to triumph. But for a cell recreation you may be enjoying outdoors in the summertime solar, that’s lower than best. The workforce discovered that even three minutes felt too lengthy. Monster Hunter Now cuts encounters right down to 75 seconds.
You additionally don’t have to be continuously hooked up to your display screen to play—excellent news for anybody who might have tumbled off a pier or two whereas centered on their telephones throughout a PoGo jaunt. Palicoes, the sequence’ catlike companions, will discover monsters for you and seize these encounters for later by its “paintball” system. That approach you’ll be able to play while you’re residence or at an workplace with buddies. “You can keep progressing while your phone is in your pocket, so we are not forcing players to look at the screen,” Osumi says.
The workforce needed to create a social environment for searching and capitalize on the popularity Niantic has constructed for adventures. It encourages gamers to go outdoors and meet folks; monsters are simpler to hunt while you’re with a workforce, and with paintballs it can save you hunts to do later with buddies. “I think this is a fundamentally social franchise,” says Kawai.
It’ll must be—phrase of mouth could make or break a cell recreation. Even although the Monster Hunter viewers is big, not each large franchise yields a wildly common cell recreation. Niantic realized this with Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. Still, after a number 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.
Only a number of video games are destined to grow to be chart toppers, and it’s doable Niantic might by no means replicate the success it had with Pokémon Go. Yet Osumi is assured in what Monster Hunter Now brings to the desk, if solely to attraction to gamers’ baser instincts. “I think this is a game that feels natural to everyone, because hunting is sort of in our DNA,” he says. Point, and lookup.
…. to be continued
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