I know, which is why I wrote "This can go a long way in recuperating extra development costs" and that it has to cross a certain unit sales barrier for it to pay off (exactly what that unit sales barrier is depends on the development cost of the game, and what Sony pays versus what Nintendo might've payed, so it's hard to say anything definitive about how high that barrier is). I don't however think this title is doomed to fail as many people have implied.

It depends on what their expectations are, to be honest. I am expecting it to somewhat do better than Monster Hunter Tri and become the best-selling console Monster Hunter, but that is a pretty low bar, especially when we consider how cheap Tri was to produce, comparitively. 

If Capcom is expecting and increase in profits over the 3DS titles, then yes it is "doomed to fail." Everything depends on their expectations, to be honest. 

It won't fail. It will be a large decline in sales though. 

PS2 and Wii, two hugely successful consoles have had Monster Hunter too ... all the top selling MH games are mobile. In the West people do not understand the appeal of MH in Japan is mainly the portable aspect. That's what made it a 3-4 million selling franchise there.

Take that away and you are going to kill a large portion of the franchise.

That said, Capcom has already killed Megaman and Street Fighter, Resident Evil looks like it's well on its way to death, so Monster Hunter will just be another one to add to the pile for them. 

hope it can sell well, it would be a hard sell to Japan if it is only home console only.

Meh, it looks awesome but the way they screwed Nintendo just doesn't sit well with me, so I'll have to abstain.

The question is iwould Capcom prefer to sell selling 3-4 Million in Japan or over 6 Million worldwide, What do you think Soundwave?

3-4 million in Japan is a massive game, but 3-4 Million worldwide is a mildly successful one.

Obviously it depends on their expectations. However due to the Switch being a powerful piece of hardware comparatively to the 3DS, it was no longer feasible for Capcom to continue with the incredibly low-effort MH portable games regardless, and they also couldn't just stay on the 3DS, as MHXX has shown that people have either moved onto the Switch, or gotten enough of that type of MH to satisfy them (after all, the series has been almost annual in the last 5 years). So the budget would have to increase if the series was/is to survive long term either way. I don't think you can blame that on Monster Hunter World. The only thing that is sketchy about this move is it not being on the Switch, but if Sony paid them enough, that can cover the loss from that anyway.

And just to do some math, if we assume MHW will sell 3 million, that is 180 million revenue (for simplicities sake, I'm ignoring both what goes to retailers and the console makers, but if you want I can go more in-depth). If the budget is 50 million (which I doubt), that means a hypothetical profit of 130 million.

If an MH sells 4.5 million on the 3DS, that is 180 million revenue (I will also here ignore the retailer and platform holder's share), and a budget of, say 10 million, that is a 170 million dollar profit. Thus difference is actually not *that* big.

No one is denying that it will see a huge decline in Japan, and people are perfectly aware of why being portable is a huge appeal especially in Japan, for all games and certainly for Monster Hunter as well. But better western sales performance can go a long way in closing the gap there.

The hunt? The combat? The crafting of gear? The exploration?

You can't honestly tell me you enjoy doing those activities over and over and over. I think you are just afraid of change, but i really believe it would be for the best.

Hopefully the delay on PC is for extra polish. I would like to know just how long the delay is though.

Also forgot to add this to the box art covers:

I didn't forget.  Decided one was enough and the OP was image heavy enough as it was.