Nintendo buys RPG developer Monolith Soft

Wii News | Xenosaga developer now under the Nintendo banner.

Namco Bandai Holdings has announced via press release that it has sold the majority of Monolith Soft, the developer of the Xenosaga and Baten Kaitos series, to Nintendo. Nintendo now owns 80% of the company, with Namco Bandai retaining a 16% share. Namco Bandai said the reasons were to grow the RPG specialist, as well as to strengthen the relationship between Nintendo and Namco Bandai.

Monolith Soft is most famous for the PS2-based Xenosaga series, so it seems Nintendo may be getting serious about getting some RPGs on its new console.

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19 Comments

DarkYoshii

5 years ago

Interesting to know indeed... Especially after hearing Xenosaga at Eminence!

Fix tags. =P

ittekimasu

5 years ago

definitely interested to see what they will produce from this.

WilliamsF1

5 years ago

Perhaps they'll set the company up the way RareWare was & produce some stunners.

doofus

5 years ago

Nintendo is the new Microsoft, with money to burn!

renegadesx

5 years ago

doofus wrote

Nintendo is the new Microsoft, with money to burn!

No Microsoft burns money buying out companies that could either a) be useful or b) be a thret

Did you know before M$ bought Bungie, Halo was going to see a Linux port (Window's main rival)

ObsoletE

5 years ago

before MS bought Bungie, they were Mac primarily developers.

Crestfallen

5 years ago

renegadesx wrote

doofus wrote

Nintendo is the new Microsoft, with money to burn!

No Microsoft burns money buying out companies that could either a) be useful or b) be a thret

So everyone other than MS buys companies that aren't useful.

legend166

5 years ago

Rare hasn't seemed to be very useful for MS so far, so I'm not sure how that one fits in.

Vervain

5 years ago

legend166 wrote

Rare hasn't seemed to be very useful for MS so far, so I'm not sure how that one fits in.

Except for Viva Pinata and hopefully Banjoo Kazooie 3.

The Brett

5 years ago

Viva Pinata was a miserable failure of an experiment. And Banjo Kazooie doesn't even exist yet, so I think legend's statement is more than fair.

renegadesx

5 years ago

crestfallen wrote

renegadesx wrote

doofus wrote

Nintendo is the new Microsoft, with money to burn!

No Microsoft burns money buying out companies that could either a) be useful or b) be a thret

So everyone other than MS buys companies that aren't useful.

If they are not useful to their core business, most companies will buy other companies that will be useful to their bottom line. Microsoft buying Bungie was a smart move coz not only did it stop Halo from reaching the Mac and Linux platforms but at the same time gave Microsoft their big main franchise, Halo. Out of all the reasons to buy out a company, Bungie had the "all of the above" list. Microsoft buying Rare on the other hand, thats a different story.

sonicwired

5 years ago

renegadesx wrote

Microsoft bought Bungie because they wanted a talented games development house to headline their new games division. I really doubt Microsoft would buy a company just to stop Mac and Linux users from playing one game.

renegadesx

5 years ago

sonicwired wrote

renegadesx wrote

I didn't say that was THE reason, like I said, Bungie was an all of the above and considering what market they were aiming for, the best choice.

Anyways back to Monolith. I am not to sure if this was a good more or not, we will have to wait and see.

realitybites

5 years ago

Nintendo is making sure it gets a few RPGs for its platform.

Didn't like Baiten Katos much preferred Lost Kingdoms II on the GC.

Maybe they are lookng at the Xenosaga franchise.

Rare is a bit off topic here but Nintendo never really pushed the Rare bandwagon MS does. To be honest it always seemed to me as Nintendo purposely down played the 2nd party titles for their own. Whether Rare are successful is up to the way MS runs its business but Rare offers diversity on the Xbox 360 platform where they need it.

Crestfallen

5 years ago

renegadesx wrote

sonicwired wrote

renegadesx wrote

Whilst that makes sense in theory I'm not sure that would work in practice.

The potential damage that company would do would have to be more than what the buyout costs and buyouts are never cheap unless your a soothsayer and get in nice and early.

bluejay

5 years ago

I would say WooHoo to this ... but the only appropriate comment I can find...
Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!

poweroffarts

5 years ago

renegadesx wrote

http://www.apple.com/games/articles/2003/11/halo/

News to me.

?oe?oe

5 years ago

renegadesx wrote

Anyways back to Monolith. I am not to sure if this was a good more or not, we will have to wait and see.

If one developer is solely with Nintendo consoles, it means whatever they do it's going on a Nintedo console. The Wii needs more dedicated developers, so why not get a totally new developer to Nintendo's norm. Baiten Kaitos was sort of a sleeper hit. And remember these guys are doing Disaster. It doesn't matter if this decision was wrong because Nintendo has the last word for these guys.

Chief Breakeverything

5 years ago

Nintendo: "Hey Chief, we bought out Monolith Soft. You'll remember them from the amazing Xenosaga series!"

Me: "Oh you mean this series whose first installment never hit our shores, the 2nd deemed the weakest of the three, or the third which was promised then vanished from the AU?EU release list?"

Nintendo: "..look over there!" *runs*

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