You shouldn’t personify or feel pity for games—developers? Certainly, they’re people. But the game itself is not alive, and it doesn’t have feelings, and any sentimentality or nostalgia you feel for it is a mere trick of the light. Unfortunately, I am not taking my own advice, because Monster Hunter Wilds is getting so thoroughly punished that I’m starting to feel bad for the li’l guy.
It’s not as though Wilds hasn’t earned its licks—persistent performance issues have utterly marred the game’s reception on PC, and unlike most games where this generally improves over time, Wilds has only gotten worse for the lion’s share of players. That’s despite the fact that the game is pretty solid otherwise.
Oof. Well, that’s likely a relief—especially given Requiem started out as a multiplayer game before the studio decided to take it single-player. Fingers crossed that this isn’t just a company soothing its shareholders.
Mind, given how troubled Wilds has been post-launch (specifically when you’re a giant like Capcom with enormous expectations out of your flagship series—over 20,000 people are still playing it as I write this, which is plenty otherwise) I’d be surprised if Capcom would invite the same turmoil twice.
Especially given it had to reassure investors that other series of the same ilk aren’t suffering like poor, pitiable Wilds is: “Catalog titles released two years ago and earlier, including those in the Resident Evil series, continue to perform well. We do not have concerns about the growth potential of catalog sales.” No attempt to excuse Monster Hunter Wilds, though—it’s on the naughty step where it belongs.
