Does anyone feel that if Monster Hunter ever returned to a Sony handheld that their audience will be severely diminished? Not only by their absense, but by numerous upstart competitors eating away at their fan base.

Here's an article showing the potential takers of the seat Monster Hunter left behind:

http://www.playstationgamerleague.com/index.php?/page/index.html/_/ps-vita/will-capcom-find-their-void-filled-if-they-deci-r23

The MH audience would be diminished, because the MH audience isnt there anymore.

Yeah, a MH game would still sell well (Its one of the biggest franchises in JP right now), but releasing a new game on the Vita would currently be a waste of resources.

the answer is no

I dont think it would. Sure it would be cool if it was on the Vita but I think that if the games do not do good on the 3ds which is more of a capable handheld, then it will not work on the Vita. Monster Hunter 4 will be the ultimate test however to see if the crowd is still there. I could be wrong, who knows.

Hell naw. Cap needs to make a NEW attention grabber for Vita.

I could be wrong here, but I think Nintendo money-hatted Capcom for Monster Hunter, so it would only be their decision if Sony ponied up more dough than Nintendo.

For some reason I seem to recall Sony and Capcom having some sort of feud over it too, if someone else can refresh my memory on that, it would be great.

Seeing as the 3DS is putting up crazy numbers in Japan (over 20 million I believe), I'm not sure bringing MH4 to the Vita would do much for them. Sure some people would buy the Vita just for that and it could probably sell well, but most people would just go "Why buy another console for a game I can get on the console I already own?" So in that aspect, it isn't really about "would it sell less because there are other hunting games on the system" and more "would it sell less because the Vita isn't nearly as strong in sales"

The feud was that sony refused to update their ad-doc tech to what they had in japan, making it impossible for capcom to release monster hunter 3HD in the west on ps3.
I would like to see mh4 as a multi platform title. I think its the best way to penetrate the market in the west.

about the article i feel that only SS has the ability to become the next MonHun but Vita needs to pick up sales WW (that dosent mean SS sells 4m, the original MonHun sold alot less). God Eater will always be a solid franchise but will probs never reach the hieght of MonHun

Monster Hunter will come to Vita, it's all but inevitable; even the 360 got a Monster Hunter game.

really? never heard about