With things settling down in Japan amid the coronavirus pandemic, Capcom announced that its developers are back on track, working on the upcoming Monster Hunter World update.
In recent months, video game development slowed to a crawl as the global COVID-19 outbreak and its work-from-home implications caused several major delays and standstills in the world of gaming, Monster Hunter: World included.
Fortunately, the veteran Japanese video game developer Capcom has some great news for the fans of the franchise, as they confirmed through a Twitter post that their team back at work developing the fourth free update for Monster Hunter World expansion Iceborne.
Capcom made its announcement shortly after the Japanese government made the decision to lift the country-wide state of emergency. According to the Street Fighter developer, the update should be ready by early July 2020.
An Update on Alatreon / Title Update 4 for #Iceborne pic.twitter.com/ZYR53C31zK
— Monster Hunter (@monsterhunter) June 10, 2020
Capcom’s decision to delay the update
Towards the end of April, Capcom posted a similar tweet regrettably informing fans of their decision to push back the free Monster Hunter World: Iceborne update owing to the global health crisis.
The developer went on to explain that the French, Spanish, and Italian voice-overs for the game were impacted by the recent events, as they were forced to replace them with simplified recordings.
While the decision shouldn’t impact the game’s playability all that much, it’s still detrimental to the overall Monster Hunter World: Iceborne experience of French, Spanish and Italian-speaking fans.
Attention Hunters, we have an important message about the development of future Title Updates for #Iceborne. pic.twitter.com/WZiEleTyTv
— Monster Hunter (@monsterhunter) April 28, 2020
Monster Hunter World: Iceborne’s poor PC reception
Capcom’s developmental woes could not have come at a worse time, as the tech company had to dial back production amid major struggles with Iceborne‘s PC release.
The massive expansion pack was released on consoles in September of last year, with its PC Steam release following more than four months later.
That’s four whole months of PC master race Monster Hunter fans waiting in anticipation while being made fun of by their console rivals. That being said, it’s safe to say that expectations were very high.
Unfortunately, Capcom stumbled pretty badly with its release, as Monster Hunter World: Iceborne’s PC port was plagued with significant performance and connectivity issues.
An overwhelming number of Steam users reported regular intense framerate drops, while some also complained about constantly getting disconnected from the game and losing quest rewards. Capcom even acknowledged a save file corrupting bug, which they have since patched.
Capcom apologizes for MHW: Iceborne PC launch issues, promises fixes ASAP https://t.co/lbUIjz9rqR
— Shacknews (@shacknews) January 15, 2020
What makes matters worse is the expansive add-on that broke Monster Hunter World’s pre-Iceborne content as well, carrying over its performance hiccups that sometimes push high-end CPUs to 95% utilization.
With Capcom devs getting back to business as usual, here’s hoping they refocus on Iceborne’s unaddressed PC concerns to provide PC gamers with the Monster Hunter experience they deserve.
Image courtesy of Monster Hunter World/Twitter