The Switch 2 version of Monster Hunter Wilds gets a Prologue Demo next week

The Switch 2 version of Monster Hunter Wilds is getting a Prologue Demo next week.

Capcom says the free demo will be available on the Switch 2 eShop from October 20, the same day digital pre-orders for the full game will start.

The Prologue Demo on Switch 2 appears to be the same as the one currently available on the PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Steam stores.

This means players will get full access to the character creation menu at the start of the game, and will then be able to play the game up to the end of Chapter 1-3: To the Forest for free.

Players who try the Prologue Demo will be able to transfer their save over to the main game when it’s released on Switch 2 on December 4.

As with the other versions of the Prologue Demo, the Switch 2 version will not support online play – this will only be available in the full game.

It will, however, support local play, meaning multiple Switch 2 owners with the demo will be able to play co-operatively by connecting to each other’s systems locally.

In a recent interview with VGC, Monster Hunter series producer Ryozo Tsujimito explained that releasing Wilds on Switch 2 version was important not just because of Japan’s history of handheld Monster Hunter, but also the face it makes co-op play at home easier to arrange.

“There was definitely a big culture in Japan for getting together to hunt back in the PSP days, and also then on the 3DS,” Tsujimoto told us. “Of course, that existed in other countries as well, but I think there’ll be a lot of players in Japan and around the world who’d be happy to have that experience again on Nintendo Switch 2, where you can actually gather together around the same table or in the same area, and have a local wireless hunt.

“So it’s important to us that we’ve been able to bring that because Switch 2 is ultimately, although you can also dock it, it is a handheld machine that you can bring anywhere. Another interesting aspect that it allows us to do through Crossplay is kind of mixing the online and local experience.

“If you have a PlayStation 5 in your house, you probably haven’t got a second one for someone else who’s in the same household to play Monster Hunter Wilds with you. You would need to both be in separate places, connecting online.

“I think a lot of people have both a PlayStation 5 and a Switch 2, for instance, and that means that if you’re in the same living room, you could just connect online using the Crossplay backend, and you’re having essentially a virtual local wireless experience, even though the two consoles aren’t directly connecting. So I’m excited to see that new possibility emerging of cross-platform local.”