Monster Hunter Wilds reportedly "fully open world" and coming Q1 2025
UPDATE: Leaker says this wasn't them.
UPDATE 2/4/24: "Prolific Capcom leaker Dusk Golem has said that last week's comments on Monster Hunter Wilds that were attributed to him were actually the work of an imposter account.
"I see this occasionally," Golem wrote on social media platform X. "Is what it is, but I thought I should shoot that one down before people buy into it only to get their hopes shot down."
The original story continues as follows.
ORIGINAL STORY 28/3/24: Capcom's big Monster Hunter Wilds reveal in December might have been eye-catching, but it was a little light on detail; but now, new leaks have shed a little more light on the developer's plans, claiming this latest series instalment will be fully open world and launching in Q1 2025.
That's according to reliable leaker Dusk Golem, who recently shared a few scraps of fresh Monster Hunter Wilds information over on Discord. Perhaps the biggest claim is that - as had been speculated following December's striking trailer reveal - Wilds will be "fully open world" rather than segmented into discrete explorable areas as was the case in previous games.
"That was [Capcom's] idea from day one apparently," Dusk Golem wrote, "the entire game revolves around it, from story to endgame." They also say Wilds has been in development since 2019, and will feature "a lot of the scrapped ideas from World". Additionally, it's claimed Wilds' director (Yuya Tokuda, who also helmed Monster Hunter World) has been given "complete freedom [for the development of Wilds], pretty much no questions asked."
Golem's source also says Wilds will be "far more" experimental than World, which "could be a risk, but feedback is stellar so far". It's also said to be a game "Capcom is going all out [and] by far the biggest game they ever attempted."
According to Dusk Golem, Monster Hunter Wilds - which reportedly also marks the return of World's "big Godzilla monster" - will launch in Q1 next year, with "no problem in development so far". Indeed, they claim that release goal isn't likely to change. "[Capcom is] banking on this to carry the whole fiscal year", they write. "I don't think even GTA6 would make them delay it".
As far as official Monster Hunter Wilds news goes, about all Capcom has said so far is that it'll be coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC sometime in 2025. It's also confirmed our next look at the game won't be until sometime this summer, so perhaps at least some of Dusk Golem's claims will be substantiated then.