No Monster Hunter game has ever been multiplatform before. I don't remember hearing any of you guys complaining that Monster Hunter 2 should also have been on GameCube/Xbox/Wii/360.
But move the series onto a new handheld, and make it clear before that handheld's competition was released that this would be the new Monster Hunter handheld, and everyone loses their minds.
Was a money hat involved? Personally I doubt it, but I don't think it matters much. It's not as though Sony has never bought exclusivity before, and if Nintendo did buy exclusivity from Capcom, then that was surprisingly business savvy of them. But I think Nintendo may have just said, "Our handheld will have a larger install base, be more affordable for buyers, be less expensive to develop for... and we'll give you a couple Nintendo-themed costumes for good measure," and Capcom never looked back.
Do you really think that the Vita is so enticing as a platform for major publishers that Nintendo has to cut them a check to keep them away from it? I suppose Nintendo also wrote a check to Namco to ensure that Wayforward's Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon also didn't come to Vita, and to Warner Bros to make sure the Vita got the 2D handheld Arkham Origins and not the full 3D game the consoles are getting. Maybe Nintendo paid nStigate to sabotage their COD Vita game, or maybe they paid Activision to ensure that no future COD games would be made for the system.
Seriously, every time Nintendo doesn't get a third-party game, it's because they have a "bad relationship" with the publisher, or their console is too underpowered to run it. But then when Nintendo obviously does have a good relationship with a publisher they've been working closely with for over a decade, that can't possibly be the reason they get exclusives, no, they must be paying the publisher large sums of money while twirling their mustaches and adjusting their monocles. Or am I to believe that Sony also doesn't have a good relationship with publishers, and simply throws money at them for every game on PlayStation platforms?
