Many were surprised when Capcom announced it’s releasing Monster Hunter Wilds on the Switch 2. Considering the performance issues that plagued the game, it’s no surprise that getting it running on Nintendo’s handheld isn’t going to be simple. Capcom has revealed it has spent considerable effort on making the port work. Hearing that, PC players are now hoping they might reap some of the benefits too.
Speaking with Kotaku (via Nintendo Wire), Monster Hunter Wilds producer Genki Sunano explained that Capcom didn’t want the Switch 2 version to feel like a ‘compromised’ port. Instead, the team wanted to preserve the original experience while targeting 30 FPS. That meant examining individual assets and the ‘underlying processing’ to see what could be tweaked further.
“It was this painstaking, and at times seemingly endless, process of making decisions and optimizations one by one that proved to be one of our biggest challenges,” stressed Sunano.
As expected, that caught the attention of the PC Hunters. A discussion on the Monster Hunter Wilds subreddit quickly turned toward whether some of those improvements could make their way back to other versions. “Would be nice if we could get some more of that for PC,” opened the thread’s OP.
Others echoed the sentiment, especially since Wilds has spent much of its life demanding beefy hardware requirements. “Perfect example of why we need underpowered hardware. I am glad the Switch 2 exists,” commented a user. “All the gamers with mid to low tier rigs that will add $$$ to capcom’s $$$,” joked another.
Interestingly, fans have also found signs of just how extensively Capcom has been tinkering with the game for the hybrid handheld. Following the Ascendance and Switch 2 port announcement, dataminers found references to ‘NSW2’ buried in the Steam 1.042.00.00 update. Those files seemingly contain docked targets for 1080p, 1260p, and 1440p, as well as dynamic resolution associated with 30FPS and 40FPS modes. This might suggest that Capcom has indeed been building platform-specific performance settings rather than simply cranking everything down.
Thankfully, in the same interview, Sunano confirmed that Capcom intends to bring what it learned from the Monster Hunter Wilds Switch 2 port back to other platforms. “We plan to apply the knowledge and expertise gained through this project to the performance improvements that we will be making for existing platforms in the lead-up to the release of Monster Hunter Wilds: Ascendance,” he said.
It seems Capcom’s idea to force Wilds onto weaker hardware might just end up making everyone happy. Here’s hoping it plays even better on the Steam Deck.
