I'm not very familiar with how Monster Hunter works in Japan, but it seems that MH on PSP sold a gajillion copies (4 million, actually) on the PSP, but with several 'budget' re-releases, which continue to sell a few thousand every week or so. Is something like that feasible for MH Tri for the Wii? A 'budgeted' re-release of the game to spur new sales? How did the re-releases work on the PSP? Were they stripped down versions of the game or something? Would something like that possibly come to the NA and EU markets as well?

Its similar to pokemon in that the Portable titles are WAY more popular than the console ones

One of the reasons is the multiplayer element that can be done on hand helds much better than MH3's "pay to play online" service in Japan.

So are the PSP re-releases a cut version of the game or something? Why would it sell so many more copies with the re-release?