Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G was Japan's best selling game last year. In fact, the top three PSP games of all time in Japan all have the words Monster Hunter in their titles.

So it probably shouldn't come as a surprise to learn that Capcom is doing another Monster Hunter game for the system.

Capcom's Keiji Inafune made things somewhat official in an interview featured in the latest issue of Famitsu. Without getting into specifics, he said that Capcom is setting its sights on the next PSP entry in the series.

He did admit that he's not sure if it will be called "3rd," and that he expects it to be a ways off. But it appears PSP owners in Japan can look forward to more from the series.

Of course, we're still waiting for 2nd G to come our way as Monster Hunter Freedom Unite, so all this talk of sequels is a bit pointless.

Inafune also shared some insight into how much importance Capcom places on the Monster Hunter series. He recalled having explained to producer Ryouzo Tsujimoto and the rest of the Monster Hunter Tri developmen staff that Monster Hunter isn't just a big game for Capcom, but a big game for the game industry as a whole. While admitting that he was just speaking boastfully when he told the staff that Tri can be bigger than Dragon Quest, he added that he really does want to make this to happen.

Inafune described Tri as an "amazing" game and said that he hopes it will set new records for the Wii game market. In Japan, Tri is set for a summer release.
http://uk.wii.ign.com/articles/957/957035p1.html