To say that Monster Hunter is a big franchise in Japan would be putting it modestly. The 3rd in the PSP series launched on Tuesday. How did it go? Well, let’s just say that “monster” is a very suitable word.
This was one of many queues at 7am on the morning of its release. Yes, going down one street and up another in a full U formation. Pretty crazy for a PSP game, you would agree. But Japan takes their Monster Hunter very seriously, as it’s one of the biggest franchises in Japan, spawning manga comics and all manner of toys and collectibles.
It’s widely expected to bump PSP sales above DS sales by itself for the week, although so far, no official figures have been released.
As well as that, Sony have released a re-skinned version of PS3 utility Ad-Hoc Party in Japan to commemorate the launch. It functions the same as the current version, however the menus have all been re-skinned to fit the Monster Hunter theme. You can see screenshots of that in action over on Siliconera.
It seems Sony are aware they have quite the killer app on their hands, and are more than eager to promote it in Japan. It’s almost a shame that it probably won’t get anywhere near the same treatment when it moves to the rest of the world next year.
