In September 2019, a major expansion for PS4 and Xbox One titled Monster Hunter World will be released with Iceborne. It is expected to arrive later on Steam and PC. Capcom states that Iceborne will continue to receive further updates after the release. It looks like there will be a few monsters to hunt in 2020, but it is not intended to be a game for eternity.
This is the plan: As revealed at E3 2019, Capcom intends to support the Iceborne expansion with “multiple major updates” just as they did with Monster Hunter World.
Producer Ryozo Tsujimoto told the site PCGamesN.
What’s included in the updates? Capcom hasn’t revealed that yet. It seems they don’t know themselves.
The producer states: “It is often better if the game launches first, you see the feedback from players, and then decide what kind of update you need to make and what kind of changes are appropriate. But this will not only be bug fixes, but also comfort improvements and balance changes.”
Major updates planned after launch
Are there only minor updates? Tsujimoto says, “We want to provide a large post-launch cycle with a lot of content to keep players engaged with the game for a long time.”
But not a game for 5 to 10 years
But that’s not the case: He also says, Monster Hunter World Iceborne is “not a games-as-a-service” title, and there are no plans to support a single title for five or ten years.
However, they want to ensure that it is not just the release, and then it’s over.
Capcom will stick to the strategy used with Monster Hunter World and release updates after the launch.
This is how it was at release: At launch, Capcom had prepared content for about three-quarters of a year with events, patches, and new monsters. However, the flow of content has gradually diminished.
Highlights included some crossover events with other Capcom titles and The Witcher. New rewards were also introduced.
It seems we can expect that Monster Hunter World Iceborne will keep us engaged with new content for several months.
If it follows the pattern of Monster Hunter World, players on PS4 and Xbox One can expect new content for Iceborne until around mid-2020.
And who knows, perhaps a new installment in the series will be ready soon, after Monster Hunter World was such a success in the West.
