Nintendo Completes Acquisition of Monolith Soft, Strengthening Its Legendary Game Development Team
Image sourced from Monolith Soft/Nintendo.
Nintendo appears to have quietly acquired the remaining stake in Xenoblade Chronicles developer Monolith Soft, thus fully owning the studio.
As observed by Automaton, the developer’s company brochure indicates Nintendo now holds all 2,400 shares. The console manufacturer initially sold an 80 percent stake (or 1,920 shares) in Monolith back in 2007, and later upped that stake to 96 percent (2,304 shares) in 2011. Archived webpages (thanks to VGC) reveal that Nintendo owned 2,230 shares as recently as October 1 before acquiring the remainder.
Although Monolith Soft has been developing games for Nintendo systems since 2008, it was once a largely multiplatform studio. Its inaugural title, Xenosaga Episode I, was released on PlayStation 2, and it created Xenosaga: Pied Piper for mobile devices in 2004. However, the bulk of its projects (and franchises) are on Nintendo consoles, including the Gamecube (Baiten Kaitos), 3DS (Project X Zone), and Switch (Xenoblade Chronicles).
It has also collaborated as a co-developer on The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, the first two Splatoon titles, and multiple installments of Animal Crossing.
Monolith Soft’s upcoming project is a remaster of Xenoblade Chronicles X, scheduled for release in 2025, bringing the entire series to the Switch.
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Contributing Editor, GameDeveloper.com
Hailing from Kansas City, MO, Justin Carter has contributed to various platforms, including IGN, Polygon, and SyFy Wire. Alongside his work at Game Developer, his writings can also be found at io9 on Gizmodo. Don’t bother asking him how much gum he’s had, as the reply is likely to exceed what he’s willing to confess.