Monster Hunter Wilds hunts onto Switch 2 on 5th December

Monster Hunter Wilds arrives on Nintendo Switch 2 on 5th December, complete with local co-op and all of its free updates.

That release date comes from Capcom, via producer Genki Sunano in an interview with Kotaku reported by Eurogamer. The Switch 2 edition will include all free DLC updates, a term for extra content released after launch, including new monsters.

It will also support local co-op. That is play with others nearby, using separate consoles linked together rather than playing online.

Performance was the big question. Capcom says the game runs at a solid 30FPS in handheld mode on Switch 2, even during taxing multiplayer hunts. FPS means frames per second, a measure of how smooth motion looks on screen.

That matters on a handheld. Multiplayer hunts put extra strain on hardware, with several players, large creatures and busy effects on screen at once.

Sunano said the team did not approach the Switch 2 version as a simple port with scaled-down graphics or performance. The stated goal was to bring the same Monster Hunter Wilds experience from PC and console to Nintendo Switch 2 without compromising the experience.

He described the work as a painstaking and at times seemingly endless process of making decisions and optimisations one by one. Optimisation here means adjusting art, code and systems so the game runs well on less powerful hardware.

Capcom plans to use what it learned on Switch 2 elsewhere. The company said it will apply knowledge and expertise gained from the project to performance improvements for existing platforms ahead of Monster Hunter Wilds: Ascendance.

For newcomers, the story starts with a boy named Nata and a creature known as the White Wraith, according to Capcom's official site. Nata was found near the border of the Forbidden Lands, an uncharted region the Guild believed was uninhabited.

Nata tells of his village being attacked by a mysterious monster. The Guild, the organisation that commissions hunters, organises an expedition to investigate. The player, as a Hunter, is assigned to track the White Wraith. Nata's people are known as the Keepers.

What makes this stand out for Switch 2 owners is the package. No separate catch-up download for old monsters. No online connection required for a group hunt in the same room. Just the full hunt, in hand.