Capcom and Niantic announce new mobile game Monster Hunter Now

Capcom and Pokémon GO developer Niantic has announced that a new mobile Monster Hunter game is on the way, with a beta beginning next week.

The details:

• Monster Hunter Now, Niantic's new "hunting action role-playing game," has been revealed, with a teaser trailer showing the new augmented reality (AR) gameplay, similar to that of Pokémon GO, fused with Monster Hunter series combat. The full game is scheduled to be released in September, but a beta limited to 10,000 players will begin on April 25, with sign-ups now open on the game's official website.
• The game, like the rest of Niantic's previous titles, will be location-based, with an emphasis on locating and fighting monsters placed in real-life locations, allowing players to work together to take down the beasts. The title also introduces a "Paintball" item, which allows players to tag monsters to battle them later even if they are in a completely different location, with the player's companion, the cat-like Palico, also being able to tag the enemies. Combat will be handled by "tap and flick" controls rather than virtual buttons, a control scheme better suited to on-the-go gameplay since it can be carried out entirely with one hand.
• Monster Hunter Now is just one of Niantic's many projects in the works since the massive success of Pokémon GO in 2016, with the company reportedly laying off 8% of its employees in 2022 after canceling four upcoming games, including one based on the Transformers franchise. The developer has struggled to replicate even a fraction of the success of its most successful game, with Harry Potter: Wizards Unite being its best performer despite lasting less than three years, launching in 2019 and closing down in January 2022. Catan: World Explorers met an even faster demise, receiving only a soft launch before shutting down after a year with no full release.

More upcoming release news:

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• Redfall will launch on Xbox Series X/S with a 30 FPS limit, with a 60 FPS "performance mode" coming in a future update. The decision has sparked outrage, with many refusing to play the game at the capped frame rate, joining those who abandoned the game after it was announced that it would be always online.
• Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has been officially delayed to February 2, 2024, to "work on getting the game to be the best quality experience for players." An unknown source has claimed that part of the delay is due to Rocksteady looking to rework or remove the always-online component from the game following backlash after its gameplay reveal in February.