Monster Hunter-esque action RPG Wild Hearts will soon be cut loose by publisher EA, according to a seemingly reliable Reddit leak, as reported on by Insider Gaming. Apparently, the plan is to end support for the game, which has received a number of free updates since its initial release — which was just seven short months ago. The leaker suggests that EA will make an official statement on the matter, possibly in the near future.
It's perhaps an unsurprising development for a title that didn't seem to catch on. Wild Hearts was met with largely positive reviews when it launched back in February, and EA, along with partner Koei Tecmo and developer Omega Force, had expected to keep the game flush with fresh content on a fairly regular basis. However, at least from our perspective, it felt like the title struggled to stay in the spotlight, and was quite quickly brushed aside during a busy release schedule.
Assuming this leak is correct, it'll be a shame to see Wild Hearts get left behind. If EA really did expect this new IP to go toe-to-toe with a colossus like Monster Hunter, then we think the blame probably lies with whoever's in charge of setting expectations at the publisher.
Did you ever play Wild Hearts? Are you sad to see this beast-slaying action RPG drop off? Sheathe your blade and slump away into the comments section below.
[source reddit.com, via insider-gaming.com]
Comments 36
The game didn't hit its stride, which is a bummer, because it still needs to ironing out some kinks.
It released at 70 bucks, was poorly optimized, had features that where pretty uninituitive, and didn't and was pretty buggy.
I wanted to check this game out but didn't like the whole crafting platforms thing
Seems like EA is making a lot of cuts lately, with this one and that other game from last month that barely made a dent in gaming consciousness. I’ve heard Wild Hearts was largely solid, even if it’s not my personal taste in a game, so it is a shame this one is getting this kind of fate.
Monster Hunter is an exceptional series; the complexity that comes from the weapon variety, complicated movesets + all the stuff you can do with items... it adds up to something that's just plain difficult to compete with.
It’s a weird one, live services seem to be both on the way out and as big as ever. It’s just that the market is dominated by a few evergreen titles.
There is only one Monster Hunter. You would think something like that would be easy to clone, but it rarely works out.
The games industry has always tried to imitate success, and it has often worked.
But because of the nature of online games, or rather, gaas games, they demand so much time to play.
So when a new one tries to copy another that's already established, if it doesn't hit it's stride right out of the gate it's going to flounder.
Maybe I'm wrong, but this game reminded me of monster hunter, just with no sense of identity. That was the impression it gave me at least and I've already played and loved Monster Hunter.
So I didn't bother with this.
There's just not enough time to justify playing an online game that seemed, at least to me, very similar to one I'd already sunk so much time in to.
Maybe release it on EA Play and see if it finds a better audience? Might not hurt at this point.
@Splat @Shepherd_Tallon Also I just don't think MH fans are looking for an extra 300+ hr timesink outside the series' release frequency
I only played the free trial demo and thought it was great. But I didn't get the game because of the high price and that I had no one to play with.
@somnambulance This game was solidly terrible. Poorly optimized to boot even on console the game had issues. I can't blame EA on this one. Sales probably got way worse after the first month.
@Splat Even they stuggle sometimes with rise getting a mixed reception. But still people would rather play that than this. Me personally am a big fan of soul sacrifice. Sony sitting on gold with that one and they just let it die into obscurity.
This is also sad, this game had lots of potential and I really enjoyed it. A sequel would really give Monster Hunter a runf or its money but if EA is gonna abandon ship after just 7 months then Capcom will continue to dominate. 🤷🏾♂️
Btw I cant WAIT for MH6 to be revealed 😋
@nessisonett The odd thing is that all the big ones I can think of Minecraft, fortnite, rocket league etc, weren't intended as gaas in the first place, as far as I know. Build a solid first experience, then expand when/if you've got a player base that likes your game.
Though GTA online was a microtransaction fest from the start I guess, but it was riding on the great single player game.
I didn't realize that this was a live service game? Who cares that support is ending for it if it's primarily single player. Not everything needs a bunch of DLC.
Ok this one I’ve heard of. So, what’s the last one of these games to actually catch on since like PUBG or Fortnite? I guess Genshin Impact is still fairly new. Will be interesting to see if that keeps going or if Fantasy Tower or that train game can slow it down? I’m currently waiting on Disney Speedstorm to become free in 2 weeks to see how that is.
Only so many gaming hours in a day.🤷🏻♂️
It's almost as though in a market saturated with GaaS titles, charging up front (especially at full retail price!) is a really bad idea.
Hell, even Monster Hunter already had that F2P GaaS ripoff from a few years ago.
Like... what did they think would happen??
Did they ever fix performance? Its why i stayed away.
I just find hunting games boring after giving them multiple chances over the years.
Didn't know this was put, but am not surprised given EA is the publisher.
By going off some of the comments it's pretty clear that many of you haven't actually played Wild Hearts lol. Otherwise you probably wouldn't be writing it off so casually. That's a real shame. Wild Hearts is easily one of the best games I've played this year. It actually introduced some pretty interesting and innovative mechanics that would have worked really well in a proper Monster Hunter game
Reminds me of Anthem; a decent game with a lot of potential just left to rot.
It's a shame that the only one in the hunting genre that's still alive and kicking is monster hunter as always. God Eater, Toukiden, Soul Sacrifice, sadly not many of them have managed to meet a similar stride as MH. The only exceptiom is dauntless but I barley hear anyone talking about it. Plus, revamping the game's systems to force the player to constantly grind for somewhat minimal upgrades put me off.
EA sucks. It poisons everything it touches.
When you think about Monster Hunter - you really have to reach to come up with anything to improve. World and Rise really are about as close to perfection as they come.
Many gamers have been asking for EA to go under for years. they are in an obvious decline. No one talks about madden any longer - the football game doesn't stick around on the charts for as long as they used to. FIFA of course but with them losing their license...will the giant finally fall?
Hopefully so I hope everyone is fired and thrown out in the snow.
@nessisonett It's going to keep a few big ones and the rest fails it's a unrealistic businesses. Expensive as hell and people are creatures of habit that have limited time this style is build to fail.
@Cashews The game started really good was in a fantastic state at launch and got regular updates.
@Flaming_Kaiser Guess it didn't work out. For me the towers were a turn off. The game felt like a board room decision:
"So team, what game has sold over 10M copies and how can we clone it?"
"Monster Hunter"
"YES. What else?"
"Fortnite?"
"Done. mash them up together."
If they didn't go with a Japanese theme it could have done better. instead, you knew they were simply trying to do MH - and you might as well simply play MH.
@somnambulance you talking aveum?
@Ryne-Gaia Yes, at least half of Aveum’s staff was cut, following its absolute dud bomb of a launch.
@RedRiot193 I don’t know if this one ever really sold much. I don’t recall it topping the charts and I certainly don’t recall it continuing to float in the top 40. Even Forspoken still floats in the top 40.
@Cashews I completely agree. Monster Hunter worked because it was solid from the start. The only thing I would not have missed is the RNG hunting for monster sizes. That would have been a easy fix with special missions for big and small monsters.
@RedRiot193 Soul Sacrifice was superb. So was the Delta. But alas...
@nessisonett There is to much of it liveservice can work but not if every game has it. How much time can people spend on gaming. Its not realistic to think people will play several liveservice games. I think the market is swamped with these games now.
@naruball I would love to see that come to the PS5 a missed opportunity.
@Cashews Thats a pity the more developers with passion for gaming and less corporate suits calling the shots. Look at iconic developers like Blizzard before they became the diseased Activision Blizzard it's such a pity.
This breaks my heart. I love Wild Hearts and I will still play it. Everyone comparing it to Monster Hunter must not remember MH in the beginning. Wild Hearts is a brand new game it has taken years for MH to have the content and the success it has. Wild Hearts needs to be given the same chance. I hope they find another way to give the game the time it needs to grow because I found it fun and quite challenging.
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