The fanbase was on handhelds. Once Nintendo's handheld was powerful enough to run a Monster Hunter game the switch was natural. It was obvious before the release of the Vita that it was going to fail. All the signs were there. Vita was never a threat.

Nintendo offered some incentives, like taking on the publishing, localisation and marketing duties in the West, but they didn't pay for MH exclusivity. Otherwise you wouldn't have Monster Hunter World on the PS4. 

If the gameplay is good this could be great. I've never liked the portable part of this series.

Ark has sold about 5 million so far just on Steam, not including the PS4 and XB1 versions 

I've been trying to stay out of this discussion, but you've got the situation mixed up a bit.

Monster Hunter 3 was in development for PS3. It was then cancelled and they started on Monster Hunter tri for Wii. They continued to make Monster Hunter Portable 3rd on PSP, but that was the last new entry on a Sony platform. There's no proof that there was any attempt to block Vita, now that the 3DS was competent enough to run a game like MH. Nintendo absolutely made a deal with Capcom to cancel MH3 on PS3 and get it on Wii, but that was back in like 2006/7.

Not sure how well this will sell at least in the West. Seems Capcom is trying to cater it more to the Western Audience (open world, design changes, etc.) so we will see how some of the MH fans end up liking/disliking the changes.

MH is a much bigger thing in the Japan market. But the Japan market is also somewhat adjusting more towards portability over home console. Yet the Xbox market in Japan is so very small that it likely won't help games sales that much. It will still probably sell well on PS4 though.

This seems like Capcom is testing the waters to see if the changes to the franchise will still keep the Japanese market interested even though its not portable and has some change in design, while getting a foothold in the Western market due to the changes.

Nope.  If MH had of stayed vita exclusive the console would have ended up selling over 10m.  it will end up over 7m instead.  Yokai watch was in development for vita originally but when MH switched they followed suit.  

If capcom weren't paid a massive cheque by Nintendo they'd have just released MH on 3DS and Vita and had even bigger sales for relatively low additional cost.  

The game is exclusive to ps4 in Japan.  No pc or xb1 version.  

Amazon Japan update :

DQ11 ps4 still top 

Forza 7 xb1 actually broke into the top 7 yesterday.  A rare sight. 

You should also consider the fact that home console games commonly retail for 50% more than handheld games. This can go a long way in recuperating extra development costs, and once you cross a certain sales barrier, will even give you extra profits.

But they also cost more to develop if attempting to compete with AAA titles (which is what Capcom must do to be relevant in the West on home consoles/PC's.) Any gains from retail price, likely will be eaten up by development costs. The game probably would've retained an AA budget expectation on Switch where the competition isn't so AAA dependent. If Capcom tries to make an AAA game on an AA budget they are going to fail to get the Western sales growth they hope for. 

One other thing to consider is that Nintendo heavily subsidized marketing and localization costs for the 3DS titles. Sony might be doing something similar, but it remains to be seen, especially when we consider that it is a multiplat. 

You're making stuff up. Yokai Watch and Monster Hunter were never in development on Vita. You're confusing the Vita with the PS3. And I hope you don't seriously believe Nintendo money-hatted Yokai Watch as no one could have predicted it would become so popular. The initial sales were pretty poor, it wasn't until the anime aired that the sales picked up. It was an obscure small new IP before the anime. 

The Vita barely has any million sellers, so you're seriously reaching if you think a MH game could sell over 5 million copies in Japan alone on the freaking Vita.