Capcom is fine with Monster Hunter World copycats because it's seen it all before in the PSP heyday
The maker of Monster Hunter World is completely accepting of the fact other games are borrowing from the series.
One the one hand, Monster Hunter World executive director Kaname Fujioka says taking inspiration from other games is the nature of the business. One the other, games copying Monster Hunter is not exactly a new phenomenon.
"I’m perfectly happy and proud to feel that if our game has gotten big enough that people are taking inspiration from it and making their own title," Fujioka told Polygon.
"I mean, we are creators and we are influenced by all the games we’ve played. It’s definitely not something I feel bad or angry about to see this kind of thing happening. It’s more proof that Monster Hunter: World has gone global, since a game like Dauntless is a global game."
Dauntless is, of course, very much a Monster Hunter-style game. If you set aside its choice of atheistic and more limited worlds, the main conceit in Dauntless is not at all dissimilar to that of Monster Hunter. In both games, the entire point is taking on increasingly difficult monsters, and carving them up for materials used to craft weapons and gear.
In fact, this isn't just Dauntless, other games have offered their own take on the formula in the past, most notably God Eater, and Toukiden. Fujioka, however, is used to it.
"In the past when Monster Hunter got big on PSP in Japan for example, Monster Hunter-like games started cropping up on PSP in Japan, but maybe they weren’t as known in the West," he added.
"We’ve always had people take inspiration from us and use that as the basis for their own creations. I think that that’s continuing with Monster Hunter: World era of the series."
Monster Hunter World's big Iceborne expansion launches September 6 for PS4, and Xbox One. A PC version is scheduled for sometime this winter. If you're looking to try it out early, Capcom is hosting two beta rounds on PS4.