Capcom is going all-out to celebrate the release of their latest title, Monster Hunter: World. The video game developer is offering a major cash prize to anyone who can prove the existence of monsters. Ten monsters qualify for the deal, including Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, and the Chupacabra. All Capcom is asking for is "conclusive" evidence that any one of them exists.
Monster Hunter: World is an open world third-person JRPG centered around a Hunter tasked with tracking down large monsters. The player is able to craft weapons and armor for use in combat against these deadly creatures. Players can also travel across various regions while exploring numerous ecosystems. As the fifth installment in the franchise, Monster Hunter: World has received critical acclaim for making the series more accessible to Western markets. The Monster Hunter franchise's popularity has risen dramatically since Monster Hunter 4, leading the game's protagonist to appear as a playable character in Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite.
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Following Friday's release of Monster Hunter: World, IGN reports that Capcom is partnering with Jon Downes of the Centre of Fortean Zoology to help prove the existence of monsters. Capcom is offering a cash prize of £50,000 ($70,000 USD) to anyone who can provide "conclusive" evidence that one of ten monsters actually exists. Anyone interested in finding this evidence has until June 30th to follow through. If there are multiple winners, the prize will have to be shared. The evidence submitted to Capcom will be analyzed by Downes, who has spent much of his career investigating the existence of monsters.
Although I have had some successes, I have yet to find that elusive proof and it is time for me to offer my help as I throw down the gauntlet to the next generation.
The 10 monsters that hunters are encouraged to look for are Bigfoot, the Loch Ness monster, the Mongolian death worm, the mermaid, the earth hound, the yeti, the Chupacabra, the flying snake of Namibia, the yowie, and the Cornish owlman. Though several of these will of course need no introduction, others are less well-known, such as the Aboriginal ape-like humanoid known as the yowie, or the subterranean corpse-eating earth hound. The mermaid mentioned on the list isn't the beautiful half-woman half-fish that's been romanticized by literature and film, but the hideously deformed fish creature that people have supposedly been spotting for centuries.
Though $70,000 is without a doubt a hefty sum, many experts would argue that proof of Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster would warrant an even more extreme sum of cash.
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Source: IGN