While Monster Hunter fans are no doubt super excited for Monster Hunter World: Iceborne that arrives on September 6th, iOS Monster Hunter players have been given some bad news today. Monster Hunter Freedom Unite ($14.99) for iOS, the only mainline entry playable on mobile, is getting delisted on September 1st. Capcom announced what to expect when that happens. If you’ve not played it yet watch the trailer for the iOS release below:
On September 1st, Capcom will delist the game on the App Store. This means it will not be available for sale anymore for new customers. People who already own it will be able to download and redownload it in the future while iOS allows it. I say this because you know how the 32-Bit Appocalypse ended so you can never be sure about these things on iOS. The in-app Online Gathering Hall chat function will no longer work after September 1st. The single player and online mode from the Gathering Hall will continue to work after September 1st. The game itself is still officially supported only until iOS 10.2.
If you’ve been seeing everyone talk about Monster Hunter: World but wanted to check out the franchise on a portable, this is still your cheapest option. I’d honestly not recommend buying it now because a lot of Capcom games break with certain big iOS updates and they explicitly stated there will be no more support for Monster Hunter Freedom Unite for iOS in the future. Read our review of it here and check out the forum thread here. Hopefully Capcom releases another Monster Hunter mainline game on iOS at some point to replace this. I doubt it will happen but Monster Hunter 4: Ultimate would be a great fit for the platform. Did you enjoy Monster Hunter Freedom Unite on iOS?
This is probably one of my most played games. It’s frustrating to have such an amazing mobile gaming experience not supported well. I really hope this same thing doesn’t happen to Monster Hunter Stories soon. Both games deserve to be on as many devices as possible for as long as possible.
So they're dropping support for a premium game (that itself had iffy support to begin with) while asking people to buy into a new game? That's a lot of testicular fortitude right there.
Iceborne isn’t a mobile game. As such, there’s no danger of an OS update unexpectedly breaking it, even if Capcom wasn’t supporting it.
I had thought about buying the game but this is what bugs me about the store. I’ve been burned by buying games and in a short time, it’s no longer supported etc. Thrown my money away on a few that I could have bought on console/PC instead and save the hassle of losing the option to play.
Bioshock is a example of that!
And I just started my character over and everything, why did this have to happen
Argh! My iPad auto-updated itself the other day and I got a message saying "Monster Hunter Freedom Unite is no longer supported. Delete?" No! I hate how things we've paid for can just become unusable.