Monster Hunter Rise has up until this point been advertised as a Nintendo Switch exclusive, but after an interview with Destructoid’s Chris Carter, Monster Hunter Rise producer Ryozo Tsujimoto confirmed the game will eventually come to PC.
While not much info was given beyond that, Tsujimoto said that the team is looking to release the Monster Hunter Rise PC port in early 2022. Given that Monster Hunter Rise releases on March 26 for Nintendo Switch, that gives the game at least eight to nine months of exclusivity on the console.
It might seem a bit premature for Capcom to announce a PC port for Monster Hunter Rise considering the game isn’t even out on Nintendo Switch yet, but it’s not unprecedented for Capcom’s flagship series. Monster Hunter World originally released on PS4 and Xbox One on January 26 2018, with the PC version coming later that year on August 9.
Hunting all over the world
There are a number of sensible reasons as to why Capcom would want to port Monster Hunter Rise to the PC. Better performance is perhaps the leader of the pack, as demonstrated by Monster Hunter Rise’s demo performance captured by YouTube channel VG Tech.
Resolution for the Switch’s docked mode, used for play on the TV, topped out at just over 720p, whereas portable mode scales back further to 540p during gameplay. A Monster Hunter Rise PC port would likely support resolutions of 1080p, and potentially higher resolutions such as 4K that’s unachievable on the Nintendo Switch.
Monster Hunter Rise targets 30 fps on the Nintendo Switch, which you’d expect a PC version to remedy via unlocked frame rates allowing for much smoother gameplay.
A PC version of Monster Hunter Rise could also include a number of quality-of-life advantages over its Nintendo Switch counterpart. On PC, we could be treated to higher texture quality, faster load times, field-of-view sliders and mouse and keyboard support to name just a few.
Porting the game to PC suggests that just like its older brother — Monster Hunter World — Monster Hunter Rise could have a long life of support via post-release content and updates, and potentially an expansion to shake up the game much like Monster Hunter World: Iceborne achieved back in 2019.