Xenoblade Chronicles developer Monolith Soft is now a wholly-owned subsidy of Nintendo.
First spotted by Automaton Media, Nintendo recently acquired the final outstanding shares of Monolith Soft. This comes 17 years after the company first purchased 80% of the shares from Bandai Namco.
Prior to the full share purchase, Nintendo owned 96% percent of the shares. The first 80% came in 2007 while another 16% was purchased from Bandai Namco in 2011. The outstanding 4% were owned by company founders Hirohide Sugiura, Tetsuya Takahashi and Yasuyuki Honne.
It’s unclear when this transaction took place. However, as of February 2024, Sugiura, Takahashi, and Honne still owned 4% of the company. That means it clearly happened within the last handful of months.
As far as the future goes, it’s not expected that anything will change. Nintendo has had a controlling stake in the studio for years, and will likely continue on business as usual. What it means, though, is that for the first time since the company was founded in 1999, the original founders will have no official stake in it.
In addition to work on the Xenoblade Chronicles franchise, Monolith has provided support development to games such as Animal Crossing: New Horizons and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
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