From Square refugees to Nintendo pillars. Tetsuya Takahashi and Hirohide Sugiura founded Monolith Soft after Xenogears, determined to continue ambitious JRPG development. Namco funded Xenosaga; financial realities led to Nintendo acquisition in 2007. The partnership proved fruitful—Xenoblade Chronicles delivered the scale Takahashi always envisioned, while Monolith’s technical expertise supported Zelda’s open-world transformation.
Fast facts
Namco era
| Title |
Year |
Status |
| Xenosaga Episode I |
2002 |
Released |
| Xenosaga Episode II |
2004 |
Released |
| Xenosaga Episode III |
2006 |
Released |
| Baten Kaitos |
2003 |
Released |
Nintendo era
| Title |
Year |
Platform |
| Disaster: Day of Crisis |
2008 |
Wii |
| Xenoblade Chronicles |
2010 |
Wii |
| Xenoblade Chronicles X |
2015 |
Wii U |
| Xenoblade Chronicles 2 |
2017 |
Switch |
| Xenoblade Chronicles 3 |
2022 |
Switch |
Support work
| Project |
Contribution |
| Zelda: Breath of the Wild |
World design |
| Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom |
Technical support |
| Splatoon |
Development assistance |
| Animal Crossing |
Support |
Studio expansion
| Growth |
Scale |
| 1999 |
~40 employees |
| 2010 |
~100 employees |
| 2020 |
~300+ employees |
| Kyoto office |
Additional capacity |
See also