An announcement from Capcom indicates a renewed interest in mobile games for the company, with big titles like Mega Man and Monster Hunter coming within the year.

According to the announcement, which was made for investors and detailed plans for Capcom's next fiscal year, the publisher is increasing its mobile efforts with plans to "aggressively" integrate its most popular franchises into the increasingly popular mobile industry. While the full details regarding which Capcom IPs have already been tagged for mobile iterations have not yet been released, Capcom indicated that fans can expect two popular titles to make their way onto phones and smart devices in the near future. Both Mega Man and Monster Hunter will appear in some form on mobile devices as part of Capcom's decision to revitalize its position within the mobile market.

Capcom indicated it would be reorganizing its mobile operations and has already created a Mobile Business Division that will be charged with producing "hit titles both domestically and abroad by aggressively utilizing the company's popular IP." It's the same sort of philosophy that has led to Capcom placing an emphasis on creating HD remakes of its most popular titles, a practice that should leave fans of successful Capcom IPs confident that there will be many more released in the coming years.

Capcom isn't going to wait very long to establish itself in the mobile games industry, either. According to the announcement, Capcom plans to launch four games before March 31, 2017. That will, of course, include the Monster Hunter and Mega Man games, as well as Sengoku BASARA, a series with much more cultural traction in Japan. Of those three, Monster Hunter seems poised to make the biggest impact on mobile games, as it already has a history of success on handheld devices like the Nintendo 3DS.

Mega Man, on the other hand, might be a better fit on mobile devices as an adaptation rather than a brand new game. Most of the recent profitability in the Mega Man franchise has been rooted in collections designed to give gamers access to some of the series' best entries in the 80s and 90s, like the well-received Mega Man Legacy Collection. Given the power of mobile devices these days, it doesn't seem like much of a stretch that smaller collections of 16-bit Mega Man titles could be ported over to mobile. That being said, however, Mega Man X's mobile port was poorly received, so the Mega Man family might be getting a new member within the next year.

Regardless of the still divisive nature of mobile titles among gamers, it's becoming abundantly clear with each major publisher's renewed focus on the genre that it's a very real and important part of the industry. Even giants like Nintendo clearly believe that mobile is the future, as the recent release of Miitomo and its surprising early success shows that there's a large portion of the gaming community happy to indulge on smaller mobile titles. Given those results, it's not surprising that Capcom has decided to jump back into the fray.

What do you think about the potential for new Monster Hunter or Mega Man games for mobile? Would you prefer Capcom focus on creating new titles for consoles and handhelds instead? Let us know in the comments below.

Source: Capcom Official Release (IGN)