EA's Monster Hunter-like has no plans for microtransactions, all post-launch content will be free

Wild Hearts monsters. — (Image credit: Koei Tecmo)

In a Reddit Ask Me Anything this week, the developers of Wild Hearts stated that they already have plans for post-launch updates, and they'll all be free.

"All post launch contents will be free, including new Kemono and more! We don't have any plans to feature MTX," they answered in one of the AMA's most-asked questions.

"Kemono" are the jumbo-sized monsters of Wild Hearts, which you'll be hunting and trapping in an action game that obviously owes a lot to Capcom's Monster Hunter. The monetization also seems to be following Capcom's lead: with the recent Monster Hunter World and Monster Hunter Rise, Capcom added free monsters and quests for many months, without ever charging for specific battles. If anything, though, Wild Hearts sounds more generous: there are more than 200 bits of cosmetic DLC for Monster Hunter Rise, while Wild Hearts' devs, Koei Tecmo, say they have no plans to offer microtransactions. Then again, it's a lot easier to sell little bits of DLC in a series that already has millions of players and is known for being ludicrously replayable.

"No plans" doesn't mean future DLC couldn't happen, of course, and I think it's likely that we see a paid expansion for Wild Hearts if it's a hit, like last year's Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak.

The Steam Deck will not be supported at launch (though it's ambiguous of this simply means it won't be Verified, or won't work at all)
There will be more than 20 monsters at launch, with more planned for post-release
You can play solo, offline, and pause mid-hunt
Difficulty scales dynamically with number of players (so if someone joins or leaves mid-battle, the difficulty will change)
Multiplayer is peer-to-peer and isn't region locked
Monsters can fight each other, though it's "a rare occurrence"
As in Monster Hunter, monsters have breakable body parts
There are eight weapon types
There are two difficulty tiers of monsters past the end of the campaign: "Volatile Kemono" and another one the devs are keeping secret
No capturing monsters
Elemental statuses like fire, ice and poison (I guess poison is an element?) are part of combat
EA Play and Game Pass Ultimate subscribers can play a 10 hour trial beginning February 13

Wild Hearts is out on February 17—check back before launch for our review.

Wes has been covering games and hardware for more than 10 years, first at tech sites like The Wirecutter and Tested before joining the PC Gamer team in 2014. Wes plays a little bit of everything, but he'll always jump at the chance to cover emulation and Japanese games.

When he's not obsessively optimizing and re-optimizing a tangle of conveyor belts in Satisfactory (it's really becoming a problem), he's probably playing a 20-year-old Final Fantasy or some opaque ASCII roguelike. With a focus on writing and editing features, he seeks out personal stories and in-depth histories from the corners of PC gaming and its niche communities. 50% pizza by volume (deep dish, to be specific).