January 9, 2020 – Gear up, PC hunters! Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, the critically acclaimed massive expansion to Capcom’s best-selling Monster Hunter: World, is now available globally for PC players on Steam. Also currently available on PlayStation®4 and the Xbox One family of devices, including Xbox One X, Iceborne builds on every aspect of Monster Hunter: World by offering an enormous amount of new content. Featuring a new storyline, Iceborne hunters can explore an icy new locale called Hoarfrost Reach, which progressively expands to become the largest region in the game thus far and is home to the mysterious new Elder Dragon Velkhana. Players face off against a multitude of challenging new monsters and fierce subspecies variations, while utilizing exciting new gameplay mechanics that offer increased depth to the combat system.
The expansion amps up every aspect of Monster Hunter: World including a higher difficulty rank, called Master Rank. Hunters must have completed the main story in Monster Hunter: World through Hunter Rank 16 in order to access Master Rank and the new Iceborne content. To help hunters along their journey, new gameplay features have been added, including the new Clutch Claw mechanic and updates to all 14 weapon types. Other new “series first” gameplay features include a two-player balanced difficulty scale, the ability to ride small monsters to traverse maps and a Hunter Helper player incentive to encourage more experienced Master Rank hunters to help Low and High Rank players progress through the World game. Also, for hunters who have yet to complete the story from Monster Hunter: World, free Defender Weapons and a Guardian Armor set help them progress through the main story in order to get to Iceborne.
The PC version of Iceborne includes features such as a high resolution texture pack, customizable graphical settings, DirectX 12 support, plus optimization for FidelityFX CAS and upscaling. Additionally, mouse-and-keyboard controls have been revamped across the board to better suit the new actions and abilities on PC. To celebrate the launch of Iceborne on PC, two different item packs offering free consumable items are being offered as login bonuses to PC hunters. The first item pack is being provided to all PC players and the second pack is only available for players who purchased Iceborne on PC. Both item packs are available for a limited time and can be claimed by logging in between now and February 5th. More info on the PC version of Iceborne can be found at the Monster Hunter World: Iceborne website.
As with previous series iterations, Iceborne will include a robust amount of free post-launch support, with the first PC title updates planned for early February and March. Title updates for Iceborne on PC are planned to align with the console update release schedule in the future. More details on the upcoming post-launch content will be shared on January 18, 2020 US time.
For existing owners, the Monster Hunter World: Iceborne expansion is available now as a digital download for MSRP $39.99 / €39.99. A Digital Deluxe version, including both the expansion and a Monster Hunter World: Iceborne Deluxe Kit DLC of cosmetic items, is offered for MSRP $49.99 / €49.99. For newcomers, the Monster Hunter World: Iceborne Master Edition containing both the main game and the Iceborne expansion can be purchased digitally for MSRP $59.99 / €59.99. The Monster Hunter: World base game is required to play Iceborne.
