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Monolith Soft Now Owned 100% by Nintendo

Video game developer Monolith Soft lists on its website that it is now 100% owned by Nintendo. Nintendo had previously owned 96% of the company, with co-founders Hirohide Sugiura, Tetsuya Takahashi, and Yasuyuki Honne holding the remaining 4%. Although it is unclear exactly when Nintendo purchased the remaining 4%, Monolith Soft's brochure published in February still featured the three co-founders holding the 4% share.

Monolith Soft was founded by former Squaresoft developers Sugiura, Takahashi, and Honne in 1999, as part of Namco, who invested in the company. Nintendo acquired Monolith Soft in 2007 from Namco Bandai Holdings (the merger of media companies Namco and Bandai, today Bandai Namco Holdings). At the time of purchase, Nintendo had 80% of Monolith Soft's shares, with Namco Bandai holding 16%, and the Monolith Soft founders holding 4%. In 2011, Namco Bandai sold its remaining 16% share to Nintendo.

During his time at Squaresoft, Takahashi directed the cult classic RPG Xenogears. Monolith Soft was in large part founded due to Takahashi's desire to develop more games based off of the setting, themes, and story he made in Xenogears. The company is thus largely known for the follow-up Xenosaga series, as well as the later Xenoblade Chronicles series. Monolith Soft also heavily supported the development of other titles, such as Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and the Splatoon series.

Monolith Soft's most recent new game is Xenoblade Chronicles 3, which debuted on the Switch in July 2022. Monolith Soft is also developing Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition, a Switch port of its Xenoblade Chronicles X Wii U game, which will ship on March 20.

Source: Monolith Soft's website via Siliconera, Automaton