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Xenoblade Chronicles developer Monolith Soft is now a wholly owned grant by Nintendo.
First discovered by Automaton Media, Nintendo recently acquired the final outstanding shares of Monolith Soft. This is 17 years after first purchasing an 80% stake from Bandai Namco.
Before purchasing the stock outright, Nintendo owned 96% of the stock. The first 80% came out in 2007 and the remaining 16% were purchased by Bandai Namco in 2011. The remaining 4% was owned by company founders Hirohide Sugiura, Tetsuya Takahashi, and Yasuyuki Honne.
It is unclear when this transaction occurred. However, as of February 2024, Sugiura, Takahashi and Honne still own a 4% stake in the company. This means that it definitely happened within the last few months.
As far as the future goes, nothing is expected to change. Nintendo has held a controlling stake in the studio for many years and will continue to do business as usual going forward. But what this means is that for the first time since the company was founded in 1999, the original founders will have no formal stake.
In addition to its work on the Xenoblade Chronicles franchise, Monolith has provided support development for games such as Animal Crossing: New Horizons and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
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