Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate to use Nintendo Network servers

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate will utilise Nintendo servers for online play, as third-party Monster Hunter Tri hosts are shut down.

Writing on Capcom Unity, senior vice president Christian Svensson said that the KDDI-hosted servers for Wii title Monster Hunter Tri will be closed down.

"We'll give everyone a heads up well in advance when we make that decision," he promised.

"I was adamant that we not do so until we had a proper alternative title to allow people to migrate to if they wish. It would have been bad just cut people off with no other place for them to hunt, in spite of the significant costs of operation."

The publisher isn't yet entirely clear on how Tri's replacement, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, will work online, with Svensson unable to confirm whether players would be restricted by regional servers.

"For Wii U we're using Nintendo's servers (which I'm very happy about) and I'm not sure how they're set up. Candidly, we're still waiting for Wii U builds in our office to play with and there's still many moving parts that no one except for the team members has first hand experience with at this point," he said.

"We have six months until release (roughly). We'll have a lot more detail on these and other questions (most of which we DO know the answers to) as we move through the communications/marketing campaign and run-up to launch."

Svensson also revealed that he isn't aware of any plans allowing players to transfer progress from Monster Hunter Tri to Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate on Wii U or 3DS.

The action RPG arrives on both systems in March 2013. Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate was detailed during the Wii U's launch blitz.

Thanks, Joystiq.