Barely a week after launching worldwide, Monster Hunter World PC has been removed from Tencent‘s Steam-like digital distribution platform WeGame in China. The latest installment in the Monster Hunter franchise is the most successful entry yet, but that hasn’t stopped authorities from shelving the game, effectively rendering it no longer being available for purchase.
According to the South China Morning Post, Monster Hunter World was removed from WeGame due to “numerous reports” and “complaints” received by the authorities about the game’s content, which apparently doesn’t conform to regulations. Since then, Tencent hasn’t elaborated any further on the issue. Fortunately, gamers can receive a full unconditional refund if they apply before August 20, 2018. They will also receive a 30 Yuan ($4 USD) coupon each as a form of compensation.
Players can still continue playing Monster Hunter World, albeit at their own risk. WeGame has announced that it cannot guarantee the continuation of the game’s services, which probably means that it will no longer receive official support and new updates in the future. At the time of writing, the game has managed to reach an all-time concurrent peak of 329,333 players. That’s the fourth biggest all-time peak for any game on Steam, followed by PUBG, DOTA 2, and CS: GO.
Monster Hunter World has already sold almost two million units in Japan alone. Meanwhile, worldwide sales have exceeded 8.3 million units, which have made it possible for Capcom to experience its most profitable year ever in its history of developing and publishing games.
In other related news, the game’s producer Ryozo Tsujimoto recently confirmed that Monster Hunter World’s visuals on the PC will remain on par with its console counterparts for now. However, he also said that the company is considering releasing a free update sometime in the near future to improve the graphical quality of the game on PC hardware.
