Rumour: Capcom and Sony bringing Monster Hunter sequel to PS Vita in late 2012
An 'industry insider' claims to have spotted the beast
Last September, Capcom and Nintendo delighted fans of unlikely creatures and impossibly proportioned swords when they announced Monster Hunter Tri 3G's imminent arrival on the 3DS.
While this was great news for the 3DS camp, the announcement left a Monster Hunter-shaped gap in the PS Vita's launch line-up.
The omission is all the more glaring when you remember Monster Hunter 2 almost single-handedly revived the fortunes of Sony's previous handheld, the PSP, in Japan, going on to become one of the country's bestselling games of 2009 on any console.
What's that coming over the hill?However, a source cited in Nikkei Trendy has claimed that a Monster Hunter sequel will arrive on the Vita sometime in the latter half of 2012.
The rumour is attributed to an unnamed 'industry insider', and should be treated with caution, but the mere mention of a Vita iteration of Monster Hunter is likely to get a lot of gamers hot under their dragon skin collars.
If you factor in the franchise's unit-shifting powers - a record-breaking 471,055 copies of Monster Hunter Tri 3G for the 3DS were shifted in just two days - it makes sense for Sony to get a Monster Hunter title out on Vita sooner rather than later.
This rumour is corroborated by an interview Pocket Gamer published back in July, in which Capcom Europe's COO David Reeves spoke of the likelihood of both a 3DS and PS Vita iteration of the Monster Hunter franchise appearing in the future.
3DS version pictured above in the gallery.
TheSixthAxis