Monster Hunter Now's first IRL event proves that the Pokemon Go-like app is here to stay for another “5, 10, or more” years

Monster Hunter Now feels like the biggest secret you’re probably not in on. In the West, I don’t think the game is nearly as popular as it should be. If I boot it up in London, you know, the gaming capital of the UK, I will at most find three or four other players logged into the game nearby. I’ve been to New York whilst playing, and it’s slightly better there, but not by too much. The same goes for LA.

Monster Hunter Now is hardcore, niche, specific. It’s designed for a rare subset of players; core gamers that play on mobile. As you probably know, most mobile games are aimed at more casual players, and designed to extract money from you at every turn. Monster Hunter Now isn’t like that. In fact, a key part of the game’s philosophy is to let you play at your own pace, with unintrusive monetisation practices that rarely - if ever! - prevent you from playing.

At the game’s first IRL event in Shibuya, Tokyo, Kei Kawai, Niantic chief product officer, explained a little about how the company sees itself and its paying customers. “We run the game as a business, of course, so that we can sustain and we can grow, and so we can bring more events and more content to more people,” says Kawai. “So it has to be a sound business plan. But at the same time, I also believe that you cannot start with making money, and then think about the enjoyment of the fans later. It has to be the other way around.”

Yes, the monetisation options are increasing with each update, but I still think they’re very much ‘additional’ to gameplay. I am Hunter Rank 160 (pretty much end-game), and I’ve only ever spent money on the Season Passes (so that’s two sets of £10) and event tickets (roughly £7 a go). For that, by my calculations, I’ve gotten about 400 hours of gameplay - I play whilst walking for at least an hour a day, and the game has been out for over a year.

What Kawai said next really fascinated me, though, and made me think that this is the secret that makes Monster Hunter Now so playable, so approachable, and so friendly to my wallet. Niantic’s chief product officer explained that the studio de-prioritises whales (read: the 1% of players that make up to 80% of purchases in many other mobile games).

“We try to find a way to have a more broad set of people spending a bit of money, instead of a small number of people spending a lot,” says Kawai. “From the numbers we have [in the backend], I think we are generally much healthier in this aspect than a lot of other games out there.”

Kawai asserts that he and the Niantic team are committed to working ‘with the community’ to make Monster Hunter Now a project that has a huge lifespan. “We want this to be a long-lastiing business,” he says, nodding. “We want this to be a live service title that lasts five years, ten years, maybe even more. For that to happen, we have to be sustainable, for both us and the community.”

And one way it wants to do that is by leveraging live events. This is a tactic that Pokemon Go has been using for years to connect fans and give you more stuff to do, and now Monster Hunter Now is taking up the mantle.

In Shibuya, Tokyo this October, 20,000 people descended on the city to gain access to exclusive gear, hunts, and opportunities to play. The Shibuyua 2024 Festival was the first appearance of Nergigante (the cover monster from Monster Hunter World in Japan), and is probably the best Elder Dragon Interception in the game, to date. The quests you could take part in were rewarding and fun; a great excuse to explore the city whilst ogling the Monster Hunter-themed set dressing Capcom and Niantic had set up around the event route.

For Tokyo locals - or anyone loaded enough to make it to Japan for a day - a ticket sets you back £15, or near enough. Given you get items, armor, and monsters galore as part of this, I think it’s worth the value for entry. Maybe, if Niantic is trying to entice new players in a US or EU setting, it could do with moderating the price down a touch: I don’t imagine Monster Hunter is ever going to get Pokemon (100,000+) numbers in the West, but slightly cheaper event tickets certainly won’t hurt if it wants to sweeten the deal.

Wandering around the city, teaming up with hundreds of other players to catch a Nergigante spawn point, and hearing the collective cheer of a bunch of nerds getting rare crafting materials when it finally bites the dust… it evokes a feeling in me I didn’t know I was still capable of. It's reminiscent of the main series of games - when you finally clear a G-Rank hunt that's been bugging you for days, and you hear your crew cheers as they harvest a 1% drop plate, or something.

I’ve been writing about games for 12+ years, and been on more trips than I can count. It’s easy to become jaded. But playing Monster Hunter with people that care this much about the game? I can’t tell you how energising it is. How special. It’s enough to make me nostalgic about why I got into this career in the first place. High praise, for what it’s worth.

I hope, then, that we in the West get to see this kind of event on our own streets. Can you imagine how fun it’d be stalking a Fatalis through the streets of London? Chasing down a Valstrax in New York’s Central Park? But to get there, we need even more Hunters joining the ranks of the game in the West - you’ve probably read why I love the game already, and now that I know Niantic wants to keep this thing alive for ‘10 or more years’, I’m even more dedicated to getting people to give it a go.

You don’t event need to put money in to try it out; it’s a mobile game designed with a high skill ceiling, based on one of the most amazing IPs in gaming, that respects your time and money. And it wants to be a nexus for all your favourite MH fights, to boot. I couldn’t ask for more, honestly. Please, come play it with me, so Niantic doesn’t have to jack up the prices for the poor losers like me that just can’t get enough of walking around and bonking Pukei-Pukeis on the head with a giant hammer on the way to the pub.

Monster Hunter Now is available on iOS and Android. This interview was conducted during Monster Hunter Now Carnival Shibuya in Tokyo, and travel and accommodation was paid for by Niantic.