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Back in November, Capcom told Joystiq it was "hoping" to add voice chat support to Monster Hunter Tri using the neglected Wii Speak accessory. Today's announcement of the European release of the game confirms that players will be able to coordinate with their hunting parties by yelling at their TVs.

Not only will the Western releases of Monster Hunter Tri support the Wii Speak accessory, but it will be offered as part of a bundle in the European version. In addition to the standalone game and a Classic Controller Pro bundle, you'll be able to buy a pack containing Monster Hunter Tri, a black Classic Controller Pro, and a Wii Speak mic.

[Via Siliconera]

Here's some awesome news: according to a press release sent out by Nintendo, Monster Hunter Tri will be available in North America this April -- which means that Capcom essentially delayed it as little as possible. Here's some more awesome news: it'll be available in a bundle with the Classic Controller Pro, the upgraded version of the Classic Controller that was previously only available in Japan. The set will cost $59.99.

Even if you're not interested in Monster Hunter, you'll be able to get one separately, in black or white, for the same $19.99 price Nintendo charges for the regular Classic Controller.

The Pro might not do anything different than the original, but it's laid out a bit more comfortably, with the analog sticks spread out further and the shoulder buttons moved out of the Classic's ridiculous single-file configuration. It's no coincidence, given Monster Hunter's PS2 origins, that this new controller is essentially identical in layout to a Dual Shock.

Nintendo appears to be confident in the sales potential of Capcom's Monster Hunter Tri. The company will take on sales, marketing, and distribution of the Wii action RPG in Europe and Australia, as it did for Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles and Zack and Wiki. Despite Capcom's announcement that the title would be delayed, Monster Hunter Tri will be released in April in the West -- just out of its original Q1 window.

"Nintendo has identified Monster Hunter Tri as a key title for the Wii platform in 2010," Capcom Europe senior director of marketing Michael Pattison said. " We are really excited about partnering with Nintendo to further develop this franchise." Perhaps it could be developed further by releasing the Classic Controller Pro along with it. Just an option.

The new Monster Hunter Tri site isn't quite open yet, with the full contents of the digital lodge kept locked down by an outrageous voice actor. But even without access to whatever's in there, there's some interesting stuff to be found outside the virtual barrier (navigate over to the door knocker twice to find it).

The site features screenshots, the North American announcement trailer, weapon descriptions, and, perhaps most useful for us, a short listing of monsters -- maybe now we won't catch so much flak for referring to one of the game's trademark creatures as "like a dragon or something." It's like a Monster Hunter University for everyone!

In the announcement, Capcom still referred to the game's release date as "Spring 2010," so we expect it to be one of the less delayed titles in Capcom's lineup.

According to an investor document (PDF) posted by Capcom Japan today, several major titles have been moved from the company's fiscal fourth quarter, which ends March 31, 2010. The delays, which appear to be worldwide, include Super Street Fighter IV and Lost Planet 2, in addition to the North American and European release of Monster Hunter 3. The releases of these games and others, including Dead Rising 2, are planned to be "spread across all four quarters" of Capcom's fiscal 2011, which begins April 1, 2010 and ends March 31, 2011. The decision to delay the games was made in order to "avoid competing with the major titles that other companies plan to introduce."

Curiously, Dark Void has not been delayed, though Capcom has drastically reduced its sales forecast from 1.3 million units to only 600,000 (the split between Xbox 360 and PS3 copies was not specified).

Given the reasons for Capcom's schedule shuffling, we can't help but wonder if other companies will follow suit. When all is said and done, the Great 2009 Holiday Release Migration just might be set to repeat itself. If so, does Yves Guillemot win a prize?

Japanese retail blogger Oosaka King has compiled a list of what he believes are the games that did worst for stores in 2009. These aren't just poor sellers, they're also games with low margins or other problems that kept retailers from profiting.

Topping the list: Blood of Bahamut, a DS RPG released by Square Enix on August 6, just a few weeks after Dragon Quest IX. No mystery why that one didn't sell! Monster Hunter Tri, which may be more surprising, was the blogger's number two choice, due to low margins on the standard edition, as well as some unspecified shipping issues from Capcom.

The full list of what one retailer believes was unprofitable in 2009 is after the break. It features a few more big names, like Sonic, Mario, and Gran Turismo. The preponderance of major games is probably due to the fact that retailers stocked way more of the big games, expecting more sales, and stocked presumably niche titles more judiciously.

[Via Andriasang]

Capcom and Udon Entertainment spent years redrawing and re-balancing Super Street Fighter II Turbo for its HD Remix version. Later, Capcom announced and released a port of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 over the course of a few months, with filters on the original sprites. Guess which one sold better?

"We have three titles that have drastically over-performed our expectations," Capcom's VP of strategic planning and business development Christian Svensson told GamesIndustry.biz. "The most recent of which was Marvel vs Capcom 2, which we didn't expect to exceed Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix's numbers, but it has."

One IP that hasn't quite exceeded Capcom's expectations in the west is Monster Hunter. The company is working to turn that around with events like Monster Hunter Tri University designed to familiarize press with the workings of the series. "We are strategically investing in the brand in the West," Svensson explained, "because we know that as a company we're going to continue to be creating Monster Hunter content, so it behooves us to do what it takes to make it stick here." In other words, Japanese sales ensure that Capcom is going to continue making the things, so Capcom might as well try to sell them outside of Japan as well.

At a press conference about Nintendo's earnings, president Satoru Iwata blamed a weak first-party Wii lineup in part for the decline in Wii sales, and for the corresponding decline in profits. "Wii is stalled," he said. "We didn't release good software continually, and let the good mood cool."

Siliconera gathered up Nintendo's Wii lineup to illustrate Iwata's point. The first half of 2009, the period described by Nintendo's earnings report, was largely anchored by New Play Control GameCube ports. The second half of the year saw major sellers like Wii Fit Plus accompanied by somewhat niche titles like Endless Ocean 2 and Sin and Punishment 2 -- not that we're complaining about those games! But with New Super Mario Bros.and continued sales of Wii Fit Plus and Wii Sports Resort, it should look better than the first half.

It's likely that not even Nintendo wanted to get in the way of Monster Hunter 3, which did turn out to be a big success -- and one that helped Nintendo achieve the level of hardware sales it did, thanks to a bundle. However, with that out in August, it didn't factor into the first-half results.

Capcom has posted its financial results for the six months ending September 30, 2009, and things are definitely looking good for the company. The publisher reported net sales of ¥38.892 billion ($426 million), up from ¥31.236 billion ($342 million) during the same period last year, which amounts to a 24.5-percent increase. The majority of those sales were generated by Capcom's home video games division, which pulled in ¥27.748 billion ($303 million) -- up from ¥16.486 ($180 million); a staggering 68.3-percent increase.

Capcom credits strong sales of Monster Hunter Tri in Japan, as well as continued sales of Resident Evil 5, Monster Hunter Freedom Unite and Ace Attorney: Investigations to its recent financial success. However, the company stated that overseas sales remained "soft" for the period thanks to the delay of Dark Void and the weak performance of Bionic Commando and Monster Hunter Freedom Unite. Joystiq readers will recall that Capcom leveled complaints at the same games in its first quarter report earlier this year. It's worth noting that overseas sales still amounted to ¥11.739 billion ($128 million), which accounted for 57-percent of the home video games division sales.

We suppose Capcom might consider that "soft," but the suits can't be too broken up about it.

Source -- Capcom | Favorable Financial Results for the 6 months ended September 30, 2009
Source -- Capcom | Consolidated Financial Results for the 2nd Quarter of the FY2009

We'll start with the good news about the upcoming Western release of Monster Hunter Tri: according to statements given to MTV Multiplayer by Capcom Community Specialist Shawn Baxter, the North American version of the game will use Capcom-hosted servers, like the Japanese version does, enabling players to connect and play online, free from friend codes.

The other part isn't necessarily bad news, but it could be in the future: Capcom still hasn't decided whether to use the pay-for-play model found in all online Monster Hunter games in Japan, or whether to make online play free like it has for those same games in North America so far. It's likely that Capcom will do things the same way as before (which means free online), but with the company not saying anything, we can't be sure yet.

No, this is not a hands-on preview of the upcoming US release of Monster Hunter 3. (You'll have to wait until next year for that!) Nor is this a review of the Japanese release. (You can, instead, read our hands-on preview from TGS.) This is the next best thing: a review of the limited edition Monster Hunter 3 ramen -- or "hunta-men" as the packaging states.

Available for 200 yen (about $2.20), this packaged instant ramen is surprisingly good, featuring a hearty meaty taste and slight spicy kick. There are even dried meat pieces floating in the soup. While it may actually be beef, we're going to pretend it's dragon meat, because that's what a real monster hunter would eat, right?

Even long after Bruce Willis has saved the universe, identified cheaters will still be unable to play Monster Hunter 3. At least that's the case for one Japanese player, who tried to connect online and was given a dismissive prompt (in Japanese; machine translation here), indicating that he'd been banned until December 12, 9999.

The message cited "modded data" as the cause for the banning, and while we can't confirm that there was any questionable data on the system, we will say that if you're looking to hunt monsters (possibly around early 2010), you may want to avoid the uber hax!!1! option. We'd hate for you to have to go on living a lootless life for the next couple thousand years.

[Via Kotaku]

Sinobi posted a list of the top ten third-party games on the Wii in Japan in terms of sales. At the top of the list, based on Enterbrain sales numbers acquired early by Sinobi, sits Capcom's Monster Hunter 3, with 720,000 copies sold.

Despite the best-seller status, we doubt Capcom is pleased with these sales numbers. The publisher famously shipped one million copies of the game, which have yet to sell through. While sales of the hardware bundle have been good, the standalone version of the game sold only 40% of its stock in the first week, and is already being dropped in price in some stores by over half.

[Via Andriasang]

It's not impossible to earn a perfect score from Famitsu, you know. The latest to earn top marks is Capcom's Monster Hunter 3 (based on translation over at NeoGAF), which comes as little surprise considering everyone and their grandmother loves the franchise in Japan.

The true question is: Will it receive such critical acclaim when it hits the States and Europe in early 2010?

[Thanks, Victor]

Wii owners eager to take sword in hand and slay humongous creatures had best take note of Capcom's latest announcement: Monster Hunter Tri is set to depart from Japan (and assured smash-hit status) and arrive in American and European homes in early 2010. The Wii incarnation will boast both online and offline cooperative modes, as well as "strikingly beautiful" graphics and the challenging quests that fans of the franchise have come to expect.

If you consider yourself to be outside that rather large group of the gaming population and have no idea what to expect, understand that among franchises like Devil May Cry and Resident Evil, Monster Hunter stands out as having a remarkably straightforward title. As the titular monster hunter, you'll track down and slay all manner of snarling creatures, only to turn them into better equipment to facilitate more dangerous monster hunt ... ery. Find it, stab it and then make it into a nice hat!