User blog comment:Bobofango/Wii Speak finally confirmed for Monster Hunter Tri/@comment-95.165.191.115-20100202140842

Operating a network infrastructure costs money so it's perfectly understandable why there's monthly fees.

There's to possible ways: As a marketing move to push MH overseas they (CAPCOM) can omit monthly fee, and when it gets popular - start to charge it.

Or they can pour huge amount of money into advertising, but include online monthly fee right from the start.

First MH (PS2), showed that free online approach is inefficient for marketing. No wonder why CAPCOM are still pondering whether to give it free or not.