News
Monster Hunter: World Game Gets Iceborne Expansion in Fall 2019
posted on by Jennifer Sherman
The "Special Developer Update" livestream for the Monster Hunter: World game revealed on Monday that the game will get an expansion titled Monster Hunter World: Iceborne in fall 2019. The expansion will feature a new story that begins after the events of the main game, as well as new quest ranks, locales, monsters, moves, and equipment. The livestream debuted a trailer for the expansion, which begins at the 17:37 mark in the video below.
The expansion will be the size of previous "G" or "Ultimate" installments in the series. People who own Monster Hunter: World will be able to purchase the expansion. The staff will reveal more details about the expansion in spring.
A free trial version of Monster Hunter: World will be available from December 11-17. The free version will let players play quests up to the three-star level, transfer save data to the full version, and play online with people who own the full version.
An arch-tempered version of the monster Kulve Taroth will return to the console version of the game. "The Fury of El Dorado" Siege will be available from December 19 to January 3. The Siege rewards will offer new items to players who fulfill certain requirements. The standard version of Kulve Taroth will not be available during the promotion, but all of the previous rewards will be available.
The game will have a collaboration with the The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt game in spring 2019. Geralt will meet the members of the Research Commission in the New World, and the collaboration will feature new quests. In addition, Arch-tempered Nergigante will be available in spring 2019. An in-game Appreciation Fest for the game's first anniversary will offer features from previous seasonal events.
All of the updates for the console version of Monster Hunter: World are also planned for PC. The staff will reveal details of the PC release in the future.
The game won Best Role Playing Game at The Game Awards 2018 on Thursday. The game was also nominated for Game of the Year but lost to God of War. When accepting the award for Best Role Playing Game, CAPCOM's Ryozo Tsujimoto (who also appears in the video above) stated that there would be "great news for our fans" within the next few days. The game previously won the Best Cooperative Game award at the Golden Joystick Awards 2018 in November.
Monster Hunter: World launched worldwide on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on January 26, and shipped 5 million copies worldwide (including digital sales) in its first three days to set a new franchise record. CAPCOM then launched the game for PC on August 9. The game has shipped 10 million copies worldwide as of August 20. The Monster Hunter series also has cumulatively shipped 50 million copies worldwide as of August 20.
The new game is an open world game that no longer has the previous games' loading screens in between areas, and thus no longer allows players to use zone transitions as safe zones. The game has a "living ecosystem" that allows players to use and destroy elements of the environment, and use monster behaviors against other monsters.
Source: Monster Hunter: World — Special Developer Update livestream
this article has been modified since it was originally posted; see change history