Honestly, I think the game does have untapped western potential, but not enough to explode in one fell swoop and offset potentially devestating decreases in the Japanese market.  

Good to see MH is not being hold back by Nintendo hardware anymore. Gonna enjoy this game immensely.

Business-wise it's kind of a strange decision to not release it on a portable, at least (heavily) downgraded for 3DS.

Maybe they're just trying to grow the brand? This is the biggest MH release the west ever had. I don't think the west ever had a proper chance to get accustomed to Monster Hunter, especially on PC.

Of course it sells better in Japan when the last games were all on handheld and western gamers don't give a shit about these kind of games on a handheld.

...but they could have done both.  This game isn't a technological marvel, they could have put it on the Switch as well and had a massive win-win.  Find new fans in the West, retain and grow their fans in Japan.  Now they're risking cutting out a massive portion of their MonHun fans in Japan in hopes of grabbing new people who may or may not make up for that loss.  You grow your brand by maintaining your base and branching out, not risking destroying that base for anticipated replacements.  

Sothereitis.gif

They've said this is not a spin off
This is a mainline entry
This is MH5 but they decided to give it a different name
Developed by the main team

So here's what I think. This is a great chance to grow the brand on home comsoles. They're going all in it seems.

Meanwhile Switch gets the handheld port of MHXX later this year in Japan. So that will get them a few extra sales.

Next year there is nothing stopping capcom releasing a new handheld MH title holiday 2018. It would be called MH World portable or MHW G or whatever they can come up with. Imo if capcom do this they're smart.

MHXX this year Switch. MHW early 2018 exclusive to ps4 in Japan and pc/xb1/ps4 in the west.

Then late 2018 release a different MH5 portable version or whether name they come up with.

Sorry, if that's their strategy they are really not paying attention.  XX is not a very popular entry at all, it will do mediocre on Switch in all regions, anyone with a brain can see that.  So they're portable entry for easy cash will crash and burn and there's a significant posibility that their console effort will come in well under expectations, assuming they are expecting they're typical sales.  The only smart option here was to have it simultaneously on BOTH PS4 and Switch.  If you want to screw someone over, screw over the console that still struggles to outsell the Wii U in Japan, not the new hotness that's flying off shelves and that you literally JUST ENTICED YOUR CORE FANS TO INVEST IN!  From a business standpoint, this is just an ignorance of the market.  And definitely don't cut out the portable aspect, the aspect that has propelled the franchise forward in your biggest region.

Oh and if Sony paid for this situation, they should have told Sony to shove it up their ass.  Short term cash isn't worth the risk to the one franchise that has saved their asses repeated for the better part of a decade.

And Nintendo could've made a proper home console to make it way easier for 3rd parties. But we can't always have what we want. The question isn't IF something can run on the Switch but if it is viable to torture your devs to port a game that is running perfectly fine on 3 different platforms but has to be modded heavily to fit on a tiny ARM platform.

They didn't tell Nintendo to shove it up their ass when they came swooping in to take the one title that would have kept the vita relevant in Japan. So why would they do it now.  

Nintendo portables have had enough MH recently.  MHX, MHS, MHXX all on 3DS aswell as MHXX on Switch.  A MH World (MH5) on Switch next spring is too much milking on Nintendo platforms.  

They're better off releasing a MHW/MH5 G/X version holiday 2018 on the Switch and ps4. That way they'll get the best of both worlds (pun intended). 

Oh *please*, give me a break.  This isn't some super game, it wouldn't even be a feat to put it on the Switch.  This is either stupidity or greed depending on the circumstances.  Period, end of story, full stop.  And I say that with full confidence not only due to the obvious evidence but because...this is Capcom.  And Capcom gonna Capcom.

Last time i checked  ps4  is still way ahead  of switch  in japan....soo what did  you mean with"  the premier"