Monster Hunter Now announced by Niantic for September 2023 release

Capcom and Niantic have announced a new way for aspiring hunters to get their monster-hunting on. Monster Hunter Now is a new augmented reality-based action RPG based on Capcom's popular Monster Hunter franchise. Like Pokemon Go and similar titles, players will use their smart devices to travel to hotspots in the real world and carry out monster hunts alongside others doing the same. Niantic will also open up registration for a closed beta test set to kick off on April 25, 2023. The game itself is planned for release in September 2023. 

Check out the Monster Hunter Now teaser trailer below.

The trailer video shows off some gameplay of players taking on monsters from the Monster Hunter franchise in both solo battles and as a four-player party. The game appears to support both portrait and landscape orientation, and actions like dodge-rolls and tail-severing were demonstrated in the brief glimpse of gameplay available. According to Eurogamer, Niantic said that the game is being developed by the same team that worked on Pikmin Bloom for Nintendo. Players who lack the time to go on hunts with their Palico can use paintballs to mark a monster to hunt later when they return home.

The closed beta test registration is available on the Monster Hunter Now official website. Niantic says that the closed beta is open to an estimated 10,000 participants, and that participants will be notified via email if they get in. Based on the registration form, it seems that the device requirements demand either an Android 7 and above device capable of 720x1280p resolution, or an Apple iPhone 8 running iOS 14 or better.

Monster Hunter now will release on iOS and Android devices in September 2023.