Lessons Learned From the Rise of a New Take on Monster Hunter and Its Sudden Collapse
October 23, 2025Dauntless was, it seems, ultimately too successful to succeed.
Launched in 2019 to a rabid fanbase clamouring for another take on the fantasy-hunting genre created by Capcom with Monster Hunter, Dauntless came out of the gate, blowing away most expectations, including those of the relatively small but talented pool of developers.
Within a day, it was bringing in ten times the players developer Phoenix Labs predicted they would get at the best of times.
But behind the scenes, some early stumbles, a surprising cost to serve, and an unexpected shift of the studio to a prototyping house led to the game’s sudden end earlier this year.
The journey from free-to-play powerhouse to contentious review-bombed monster hunter game was one marked by two corporate sales, a founder’s stroke, and some important lessons learned.
To continue reading this story head over to 80LV where this ran on Oct. 23, 2025.
