BBC Newsbeat<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The latest release in one of Japan’s most popular video game series has had one of the most successful debuts of all time.<\/p>\n More than one million players have logged on to the PC version of Monster Hunter Wilds within hours of its launch, according to figures from online store Steam.<\/p>\n There have been complaints from the first wave of players on Steam about the game’s performance on computers, but its critical response has been positive.<\/p>\n BBC Newsbeat spoke to director Yuya Tokuda and producer Ryozo Tsujimoto prior to the release of Wilds about turning the game into a global hit.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Monster Hunter first launched on the PlayStation 2 in 2004. <\/p>\n As the title suggests, players spend the game navigating an area known as The Forbidden Lands capturing and battling a cast of increasingly fearsome beasts.<\/p>\n Long-time fans of the series are drawn in by its challenging, complex systems and option to play co-operatively, teaming up with friends to take down massive foes. <\/p>\n Breakout 2018 hit Monster Hunter World has has sold 21.3 million copies, according to publisher Capcom, rising to 28.1 million when sales of an upgraded 2019 edition are included.<\/p>\n Producer Mr Tsujimoto told BBC Newsbeat the game was a culmination of all the work and lessons learned from previous titles on the series. <\/p>\n “Anything that we hadn’t been doing we really tried to do with Monster Hunter World to get everything ready so that the game was ready to break through,” he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Games industry layoffs and studio closures in the West and Europe have led to fears of “brain drain” – a loss of knowledge as people leave companies or even look for work in different fields.<\/p>\n Japan, where employment protections for workers are much stronger, has not been as badly affected and developers often stay with the same company for a long time.<\/p>\n Monster Hunter director Mr Tokuda says he’s worked on the series for 20 years and it’s fed into his work on Wilds.<\/p>\n “It’s the groundwork that you create with your previous titles that you hope can inform the success of later ones,” he says.<\/p>\n “We have the ability to take data from past titles like Monster Hunter World and analyse that data in order to understand what players were enjoying and what we could improve.”<\/p>\n Other Japanese studios are known for taking this iterative approach and building on what has come before.<\/p>\n Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, the makers of the popular Yakuza series and its Like a Dragon spin-offs, have put out a new game more or less every year since 2020. <\/p>\n The company’s boss Masayoshi Yokoyama has spoken openly about how the team is happy to revisit previous locations and reuse elements from earlier games rather doing a “fresh reboot” each time. <\/p>\n This can help to lower development costs and reduce the time it takes to make new titles.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Japanese games industry was a dominant force from the 1980s until the early 2000s, but a power shift saw Western developers begin to lead the way. <\/p>\n More recently, the country has been behind some of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful titles released.<\/p>\n At last year’s Game Awards – described by some as the industry’s answer to The Oscars – Japanese-made games occupied four of the six Game of the Year nominations.<\/p>\n Mr Tsujimoto says he can’t pinpoint a specific reason for this, but says the Monster Hunter team has learned there are certain things needed to make a “triple-A success in today’s market”.<\/p>\n That includes translating games into various languages so they can be released simultaneously in different countries, and being mindful of growing your audience.<\/p>\n “We’re always careful to design the experience so new players can get into the game,” he adds.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Japan does face some of the same challenges as other developers worldwide.<\/p>\n Player habits are changing, with PC gaming increasing in popularity, and as technology becomes more advanced making games becomes more expensive.<\/p>\n Mr Tsujimoto says generational leaps “push the industry forward”, bringing “new opportunities and new complexities”. <\/p>\n “I don’t think it’s necessarily the most difficult it’s ever been but there are always new challenges whenever technology leaps forward.”<\/p>\n The games industry is also more competitive than ever – more video games are being released, and players are tending to stick with the same ones for longer periods.<\/p>\n It leaves publishers of new releases fighting over a much smaller share of players’ free time and 2025 has already been packed with big new releases.<\/p>\n Mr Tsujimoto insists they haven’t paid too much attention to that while working on Monster Hunter Wilds.<\/p>\n “It looks like a big year for everyone but we’re really all just working in our own lanes,” he says.<\/p>\n “We happened to have this launch window that’s on the verge of some other big releases but we don’t have access to that information before the general public.”<\/p>\n For an established series that suddenly explodes in popularity, Mr Tokuda says a big challenge is pleasing old and new fans.<\/p>\n “You always have in your mind that there’s people waiting for your next creation and they’re the players you want to satisfy,” he says.<\/p>\n “But you also have your own creative idea and want to follow that through.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"Capcom](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/78c7\/live\/d194a7b0-f5b9-11ef-9e61-71ee71f26eb1.jpg.webp\")
Capcom<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/bbcx\/grey-placeholder.png\")
![\"Capcom](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/e30b\/live\/b1831f10-f5b9-11ef-8c03-7dfdbeeb2526.jpg.webp\")
Capcom<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n‘We’re working in our own lanes’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/54fb\/live\/4452d270-f5bc-11ef-9e61-71ee71f26eb1.jpg.webp\")
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