Pokemon Go devs announce Monster Hunter NOW augmented reality mobile game

The developers behind Pokemon Go, Niantic, have announced Monster Hunter NOW, an augmented reality game based on the popular Capcom RPG.

Monster Hunter is, undoubtedly, one of Capcom’s biggest titles, having largely been in a genre of its own for the past few generations. And now, the IP is getting the augmented reality mobile game treatment, similar to Pokemon.

Niantic, the pioneer developer of Pokemon Go, has announced it is developing Monster Hunter NOW. With a number of massive hits already under their belt, Niantic is now undertaking another project, turning Capcom’s iconic franchise into an AR game. 

The announcement revealed the AR collaboration of Niantic and Capcom will be launching in September 2023, with the closed beta starting on April 25 and free for players to sign up to. 

So far, the only look into Monster Hunter NOW is a short trailer released by the devs, one that shows an augmented reality dragon in a city, transitioning into mobile gameplay of a squad taking down a Monster. 

There is no confirmation of what the gameplay will entail, but the game’s website described the title as a “real-world hunting action RPG”. The game will obviously contain augmented reality at its core, perhaps similar to the raiding system of Pokemon Go. 

But this is not the first mobile Monster Hunter game to be announced. In November 2022, Capcom announced they are working with TiMi studios, the devs behind Pokemon Unite and Call of Duty: Mobile, on developing a game based on the RPG. 

The game, when announced, also did not have any official footage, but was aiming to “reproduce the hunting actions that define Monster Hunter”. For that untitled game, no release date has yet been announced.