Monster Hunter Wilds could be headed to the Nintendo Switch 2, if some leaked code is what it appears to be. While much of the recent conversation around Capcom has centered on upcoming games like Resident Evil Requiem and Pragmata, the company had a big hit and an equally big mess on its hands earlier in 2025. Things have not gone too smoothly for Monster Hunter Wilds since launch, but there could be substantial updates ahead of it, including a new platform.
Capcom ended 2025 on a high note, releasing Monster Hunter Wilds‘ Title Update 4 on December 16 and giving players one of the biggest sets of changes to date. That included a slew of performance optimizations and a good deal of new content to keep the game alive and well heading into the new year. Now, a datamine has offered some insights into what else people can expect from Wilds going forward, and Nintendo fans may be in for a treat.
It’s Already the End of an Era for Monster Hunter Wilds
As players get farther away from Monster Hunter Wilds’ launch, their feelings about the game are changing, and not for the better.
Monster Hunter Wilds May Have a Switch 2 Port in the Works
As Redditors dug into a recent Capcom datamine, some discovered what appears to be references to a Switch 2 version of Monster Hunter Wilds. There aren’t a lot of details, but at least two lines of code include the term “NSW2,” which fans interpret as “Nintendo Switch 2.” Those functions also reference an “upgrade edition,” which could mean there’s a bigger update coming down the pipeline, but it could just mean the Switch 2 port will include all optimizations and updates released so far. In either case, it makes sense for Capcom to target a Switch 2 release, as Monster Hunter Wilds did not meet sales expectations, despite selling more copies at launch than any other Capcom game prior. A new platform could help push those figures higher.
Many Redditors were quick to question how a Switch 2 version of the game would run. Despite its strong initial sales, Monster Hunter Wilds quickly lost most of its player base on Steam as PC users ran into consistent performance issues. While Capcom has since released patches to address these concerns, some fans are still skeptical that the Switch 2’s relatively modest hardware can run the game well. One user said there’s “no chance it will run properly” in light of how “CPU hungry” the game is. At the same time, another pointed to Baldur’s Gate 3‘s Series S port, which resulted in general improvements as devs worked to optimize the game for less powerful specs.
While some users may remain skeptical, Monster Hunter‘s developer has been vocal about its appreciation of Nintendo’s latest console. Capcom explained why it’s releasing three Resident Evil games on Switch 2 in one day by saying it was surprised by how “smoothly” development went for the system. Resident Evil Requiem Producer Masato Kumazawa described how Resident Evil Village ran well enough on the Switch 2 to give the team confidence in other ports, so something similar could apply with Monster Hunter Wilds. It may be that getting a large game to perform well on the Switch 2 is not as big an undertaking as it may seem, and the studio does have experience with it now.
For now, the Switch 2 port of Wilds is unconfirmed, and if it does turn out to be real, it’s unclear when it will come out. Nintendo fans can look forward to Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection in 2026, so Capcom could release both that game and the Wilds port on Switch 2 simultaneously, but any such guesses are just speculation until the developers themselves reveal more. Likewise, players will only know how well the game runs on the new platform once they get it into their hands at some point down the line.
- Released
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February 28, 2025
- ESRB
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T For Teen // Violence, Blood, Crude Humor
