Nintendo fully acquires one of its partially owned studios

Key points

• Nintendo has acquired full ownership of Monolith Soft, developer of Xenoblade Chronicles, and now holds all 2,400 shares of the company.
• Nintendo originally purchased an 80% stake in Monolith Soft from Bandai Namco in 2007, then increased the stake to over 96% four years later.
• The company purchased the remaining 80 shares held by Monolith Soft's cofounders between February and November 2024.

Nintendo has fully acquired Monolith Soft. Not much is expected to change after this move, as the studio has already been a subsidiary of Nintendo for most of its existence.

Monolith Soft: Not to be confused with FEAR AND Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor developer Monolith Productions: is a Japanese studio specializing in role-playing games. In 2023 its workforce amounted to 264 employees Xenosaga AND Xenoblade Chronicles titles. The group was co-founded by former SquareSoft designer Tetsuya Takahashi in 1999 and operated as a subsidiary of Namco and later Namco Bandai (now known as Bandai Namco) for eight years. Nintendo then acquired a controlling stake in the company in 2007.

It appears that the Switch maker has now increased its stake in Monolith Soft to the point of acquiring full ownership. That's according to Monolith Soft's official website, which was recently updated to reveal that Nintendo now holds all 2,400 shares of the company's stock, as first reported by Automation West. Before this change, co-founders Tetsuya Takahashi and Hirohide Sugiura each owned 30 shares, while co-founder Yasuyuki Hanne held 20. Their combined stake in the studio therefore amounted to approximately 3.33%. In 2007, Nintendo initially acquired 80% of Monolith Soft, but in 2011 increased its stake to 96.66%.

Nintendo completely acquired Monolith Soft without much fanfare

It is currently unclear when exactly Nintendo purchased the remaining 80 shares from the co-founders of Monolith Soft. Game Rant's review of cached web data shows that the Xenoblade Chronicles the developer began listing Nintendo as the sole owner between October 1 and November 21, 2024. However, the acquisition may have been finalized months earlier. Nintendo was still listed as a part owner of Monolith Soft in the latter's latest annual corporate brochure, released in February 2024.

Timeline of Nintendo's involvement in Monolith Soft

Given that Monolith Soft has been a subsidiary of Nintendo for 17 of the 25 years of its existence, this turn of events is unlikely to have a material impact on its day-to-day operations. The studio is currently working Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Editiona remaster of his 2015 Wii U JRPG, scheduled to release as a Switch exclusive on March 20, 2025.

Aside from its original titles, Monolith Soft has also consistently played a supporting role in big-budget Nintendo projects. For example, its Tokyo branch is credited with contributing to The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Swordwhile his Kyoto study contributed to the development of Pikmin 2, Splatoon 3AND Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Monolith Soft Tokyo 2nd Production Team can also be found in the credits of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild AND The tears of the Kingdomamong other proprietary Nintendo games.

Sources: Automation West, Monolith Soft (cached)