‘Monster Hunter World’ will stalk its way onto PC this fall

#MHWorld is currently being optimized for PC and is planned for an Autumn 2018 release! pic.twitter.com/82JUC6iIMC

— Monster Hunter (@monsterhunter) January 3, 2018

After several entries on the 3DS handheld, Monster Hunter World marks the series’ return to home consoles in a bid to expand the games’ niche (but passionate) fan community, particularly outside of its native Japan. The game launches for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on January 26. Our hands-off live demo at E3 last year when the game was announced piqued our interest, and everything we have subsequently learned has kept it as one of our most anticipated upcoming games of 2018. 2017 was a pretty astounding year for gaming, so it leaves large shoes to fill, but Monster Hunter World is certainly a strong start.

An autumn 2018 release will give its chief competitor on PC, indie Monster Hunter-like Dauntless, a chance to establish itself when it soon enters public beta. Developer Phoenix Labs is stacked with former staffers from League of Legends‘ Riot Games, but they are nevertheless an underdog in a genre more or less invented by Capcom’s long-running franchise. Dauntless aims to translate the Monster Hunter formula into a more elegant, Western-friendly package that’s built for PC from the ground up. Capcom has a mixed history with porting its console titles to PC, so time will tell how well Dauntless holds up in a direct comparison to Monster Hunter World. We quite enjoyed hunting monsters in the bright, stylized world of Dauntless when we got our hands on it at the end of last year. Regardless, PC gamers will have a glut of options for hunting giant beasts with their friends by the end of 2018.