Since the announcement of Monster Hunter World at E3 2015, many have theorized due to the title that the game might be a spin-off of the series, but this isn't the case according to Capcom's Yuri Araujo, who has been responding questions on his Twitter account.

Not only Araujo confirmed that the game is "definitely" not a spin-off, but he clarified that it's part of the main line of Monster Hunter titles. To a fan "assuming" that the series would split between the numbered games and World he advised to "never assume anything."

Araujo also explained that this is "most definitely" a "real" Monster Hunter game, and it's by the main development team at Capcom Japan. The gameplay isn't being sacrificed to make it pretty either.

Prowler mode won't be included, but Hunter Mode is "better than ever" according to Araujo, who also mentioned that there won't be cross-platform gameplay, but it'll be possible to play offline. While it's not an open world game, all the maps are "massive and wide open, without any loading screens."

Interestingly, there is another detail: The official Japanese website mentions only PS4 and PS4 Pro as platforms, probably indicating that the game is a PS4 exclusive in Japan. Of course, this isn't too surprising, considering that the result would be nearly the same if it wasn't.

Monster Hunter World will release worldwide in early 2018 for PS4, Xbox One and PC. If you want to see more, you can check out the announcement trailer.