Next month, Capcom will bring Monster Hunter Wilds to players just over seven years since the last mainline game, Monster Hunter: World, debuted in 2018. There was an open beta for players in October, and now Capcom has announced that a second open beta in February. The news was accompanied by the following video, which features Monster Hunter Wilds producer Ryozo Tsujimoto using the create-a-character function to place himself in the game.
In terms of content, the new beta will be very similar to the one from last year. Players will still be able to use the character creator, try out the story trial, and complete the Slay Doshaguma quest. However, this version of the demo will also include Gypceros, a monster from the previous games who was absent in the first demo.
According to Tsujimoto, characters created in the first beta can be carried over to the second beta and to the final version of the game as well. However, game progress will not be transferable. The second open beta will be held over two weekends on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC. It will also be cross-platform, and the beta is open to all players regardless of whether they have Game Pass or PlayStation Plus.
Players who take part in the new beta will get bonus in-game rewards including a charm for a weapon and an item pack. The second beta will take place from February 6 at at 7 PM PT / 10 PM ET until February 9 at the same time. Then the beta will have another weekend preview on February 13-16, presumably during the same hours as the previous event.
Tsujimoto noted that the team has implemented changes based on feedback to the first beta test, which attracted almost 500,000 concurrent players on Steam. Unfortunately, those changes will not be in the next beta. Instead, Capcom will likely wait until the game’s February 28 release date to implement those improvements.
