Capcom has announced that shipments of its Monster Hunter 4 game for Nintendo 3DS in Japan have exceeded three million units, including sales of the downloadable version through download cards and the Nintendo eShop.

The Monster Hunter series is a hunting action game that pits players against giant monsters in a beautiful natural environment. The series has sparked a social craze known as the \”Monster Hunter Phenomenon\” by introducing a new kind of communication style for players through cooperative play focused on hunting monsters with their friends. The series, first released in 2004 as a home video game, has been a massive hit. Next year marks the tenth anniversary of the launch of the franchise. Growth in sales is continuing with the number of committed fans still rising and total sales of the series surpassing 26 million units to date (as of October 15, 2013).

The eagerly anticipated Monster Hunter 4 for the Nintendo 3DS platform has the same characteristics as other titles in this series. There are also many completely new elements that have been highly appreciated. For example, the game is the first in the series to offer dimensional action that exploits height differences and there is an online multiplayer capability. Moreover, marketing activities have employed a variety of promotions that include collaborations with partners outside the game sector. For instance, there was a regional revitalization campaign with Shibu hot spring resort in Nagano Prefecture as well as collaborations with companies in the beverage, apparel and other industries. As a result, sales have already topped 3 million units only about one month after the launch making Monster Hunter 4 for the Nintendo 3DS the third best selling Monster Hunter game since Monster Hunter Freedom 2 for the PSP in 2007. Being that only a month has past, it’s likely that sales will continue to rise at a rate that allows the game to outsell even the best sell game in the franchise, Monster Hunter Freedom Unite for PSP. If it does so, this could mean great things for the future of Monster Hunter on the Nintendo platform.

Starting in October 2013, the \”Monster Hunter Festa\’ 13\” will be staged in five cities across Japan for Monster Hunter fans. In the spring of 2014, a tie-up with Universal Studios Japan will be used to hold the event \”Monster Hunter the Real 2014\”. By using activities like these, Capcom will continue to take steps aimed at further increasing the value of the Monster Hunter brand.

Capcom ends off saying it will remain firmly committed to satisfying the expectations of all users by making the most of its industry-leading game development capabilities in order to create games that are full of originality. Hopefully this means that they have plans to localize the game in the west.