Capcom said it was serious about boosting Western popularity of the Monster Hunter franchise and not to our dismay, they have already begun working towards realizing that goal. Today the company announced that a demo of PSP title Monster Hunter Freedom Unite is slated to hit PSN in “early June,” just before the game hits retail shelves. Hats off.

The demo is said to highlight both the single and ad-hoc multiplayer aspect of Unite. To give a newcomer-friendly boost to the game’s steep yet rewarding learning curve, characters will start off at a higher skill set, proficient at each of the major weapon types.

Relatively speaking, seeing as the series as a whole has yet to catch on here in North America, a demo can only help at this point. Perhaps it’ll do well to ignite interest among those who have always been iffy or undecided on picking up the full thing.

Follow this author on Twitter.