In the U.S., Monster Hunter doesn't seem like much of a big deal, but it's serious business in Japan. It's not exactly Japan's Halo-- Halo 3 is actually doing a pretty good job of that right now-- but Famitsu and the other Japanese gaming sites manage to post about a Monster Hunter game nearly every single day. Such serious business is Monster Hunter that Nintendo's president Satoru Iwata celebrated Capcom's move of Monster Hunter 3 to the Wii as a strategic play on Nintendo's part to attract more hardcore gamers.

In a statement made during Wednesday's Nintendo Conference, Iwata said "I understand that some experts argue that our success is short-lived and temporary. So, now we need to make efforts to [offer] services and titles that can appeal not only to those who have never played games but also to those who play them hard."

In a delightfully hilarious understatement, publisher Enterbrain's Hirokazu Hamamura declared that "The transfer of the platform is a positive surprise for Nintendo and negative news for Sony." Yes, we'd say that a series that has sold 4.5 million copies on your systems moving toward the competitors is negative news. We think that there's almost no reason for Capcom to release a big game like Monster Hunter 3 on the PS3 when they could do so on the Wii. It costs less to develop Wii games, and there are more Wii owners to sell to. Oh, plus it sounds like Nintendo made them a very attractive deal, which doesn't hurt.

The Wii's relatively lacking online integration is the only thing that could hurt Monster Hunter, and we imagine that Nintendo will bend over backwards to help out in this case.

[Via Game|Life]