I wonder why Capcom opted to release MHW in January from a sales standpoint. This also seems to be the first MH released in January. Do titles tend to sell strongly after December, or does an after-Christmas lull exist? Maybe it has to do with them trying to find a period that won't be contesting for sales with other end-of-year software, but not wanting to entirely miss out on the holiday season.
How does new software sales tend to fare in January traditionally?
This is for trying to hit the post-Holiday holiday for the Sony ecossystems, and to give them a lot of time at retail between launch and EoFY reporting.
There is a window after the holidays (January/February) where spending money gifts hit market, and this is when the Playstation ecosystem experiences a nice boost as normally holiday spending on games is more towards Nintendo platforms for the family/children angle of appeal. (Of course, with the Switch being a more go-between platform, its possible this year will see increased spending on the Switch as well but that doesn't change the broader point for Playstation.)
Likewise, Capcom needs good numbers for their end of year report, and the more time they give MHW, the more time they have for it to sell something for them to report positively for their shareholders.