Recently, the official website of Monolith Soft shows that Nintendo now fully controls the company and becomes its sole shareholder. This marks a new height in the more than ten-year cooperation between the two companies.
Monolith Soft is a developer known for the ‘Xenoblade’ series. Its works include Square Enix’s ‘Xenogears’, Bandai Namco’s ‘Xenosaga’, and Nintendo’s ‘Xenoblade’ series.
In addition, the company has also participated in the development support of Nintendo classic games from ‘Super Smash Bros. X’ to ‘The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’.
Nintendo first purchased 80% of Monolith Soft’s shares in 2007 and then acquired another 16% of the shares from its former parent company in 2011. Since then, it has held a 96% controlling stake. However, the co-founders of Monolith Soft, Hiroyuki Sugiura, Tetsuya Takahashi, and Yasuyuki Motegi still retain about 4% of the remaining shares. Recently, this part of the shares seems to have been transferred as well. Monolith Soft has now become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nintendo.
Although the news of full control has attracted industry attention, for the daily operations of the two companies, the changes may not be significant. After all, Monolith Soft has almost completely focused on Nintendo’s project development for more than ten years.
However, this move is strategically significant, especially considering that Nintendo’s large-scale acquisitions are very rare.
Currently, Monolith Soft is preparing to port the once Wii U exclusive work ‘Xenoblade X’ to the Switch platform and it is expected to meet players next year.
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