CAPCOM cancels Monster Hunter Wilds CEDEC 2025 performance lecture citing threats

Capcom has canceled its upcoming lecture on Monster Hunter: Wilds’ performance optimization, which was to be held at Japan’s CEDEC 2025 conference. This change in plans comes as a result of widespread harassment and threats directed at the company’s staff.

The presentation, dubbed “Making Monster Hunter: Wilds run smoothly! Everything you need to know about optimization,” was scheduled to provide insight into technical issues and solutions the developers came up with when optimizing the title for newer hardware. The lecture was supposed to take place from July 22-24, featuring CAPCOM developers presenting examples of CPU, GPU, and memory management in the game’s development process.

The cancellation follows a period of backlash from the Monster Hunter community. After Title Update 2’s release on June 30, players took to the internet to report performance issues like frame rate drops, CPU usage spikes, and multiple crashes. Capcom launched a patch on July 1 to address these problems, but players reported that the update only made things worse.

For example, players running relatively high-end GPUs like the Radeon 7900XT reported poor performance, texture streaming issues, and constant stuttering. The situation took a turn for the worse as Capcom staff began receiving harassment and direct threats through social media channels and customer support. 

Capcom issued a public statement on July 4 reiterating its Anti-Customer Harassment Policy: “While we value player feedback, the harassment has crossed a line.” Capcom further stated that “intimidation, perjury notices, business obstruction notices, harassment, and other acts” would not be tolerated and clarified that the company would resort to legal action in serious cases.

This controversy stems from the aging RE Engine’s struggle to handle the scale and open-world design of Monster Hunter: Wilds. The backlash started on Steam, where the game garnered only 12-13% positive reviews out of 20,000, earning an “Overwhelmingly Negative” label.

While Capcom continues to reassure users of its commitment to improving Monster Hunter: Wilds’ performance, it has made it clear that the safety of its employees and staff takes precedence.