Heads Up: Physical Copies of Monster Hunter Wilds Need a Day One Update, While Digital Purchasers Can Dive In Early

If you’ve been counting down the minutes to Monster Hunter Wilds‘ release, you might need to sit tight for just a tiny bit longer, depending on your internet speed: Capcom has noted physical edition owners will need to download a “required” day one patch before they can play.

As per a brisk PSA on social media, Monster Hunter Wilds insists all players download a 15GB update before the seikret-riding and monster bonking can commence.

For physical edition purchasers, that means a bit of extra finger-twiddling before it’s playtime. However, anyone that’s pre-ordered Monster Hunter Wilds’ digital release can get a bit of a headstart – the 15GB patch is already available to download now thanks to the wonders of pre-install, meaning a more immediate start when Wilds goes live this Friday, 28th February.

And if you prefer release times to release dates, Capcom has now obliged, confirming Monster Hunter Wilds will be available on Xbox Series X/S and PS5 from midnight Friday in the UK. PC players will need to wait a little bit longer, however, with the game going live on Steam at 5am GMT. Anyone who sets their clock to PST, meanwhile, can technically start a day earlier: Wilds is available from 9pm PST on Thursday, 27th February, whether you’re playing on PC or console.

Capcom hasn’t yet said what the 15GB update does, but hopefully it’ll go someway toward addressing the technical rough spots evident in the pre-launch version. As Digital Foundry concluded earlier this week, Monster Hunter Wilds “feels undercooked on PS5, Series X, and especially Series S” right now, although the PS5 version fares better.

As for the game itself, it’s a good ‘un – even if (as I wrote in my review), it sometimes feels like Capcom isn’t quite sure how to balance the demands of returning fans with a desire to woo the untapped masses. “Wilds remains an exhilarating piece of work,” I concluded. “So refined, so alive, so giddily, chaotically joyful when it all comes together that it feels like the ultimate culmination of everything the series has been working toward over the last two decades.”