Bad news for the Chinese hunters of Monster Hunter Online: Tencent has announced that the game will be shutting down at the end of the year. The China-exclusive MMO entry in Capcom’s popular action-RPG franchise, which first went live four years ago in 2015, was the result of an agreement between Tencent and Capcom — an agreement that the studios have chosen not to renew, resulting in the game’s closure.
Of course, why exactly Capcom and Tencent have decided to let their contract lapse and bring Monster Hunter Online to an end isn’t entirely clear. It might be that the game just wasn’t profitable or popular enough, or it might have something to do with China’s restrictive game-regulation practices, which last year forced Tencent to pull Monster Hunter World from sale in China after the studio’s license to operate was revoked in the region.
Monster Hunter Online isn’t officially shuttering its doors until December 31st, but the game has put a halt to new registrations and payments, so at this point, current players are basically locked in to wait for the world to end. But in the statistically unlikely event that you’re a Monster Hunter Online player with an active account, you’ve got until the end of the year to get your fill of monster slaying.
