Nintendo buys Monolith Soft

CaptHawkeye · Post by **CaptHawkeye** » 2007-04-27 06:44pm

Namco Bandai Games today announced on its Japanese Web site that it is selling its majority interest in developer Monolith Soft to Nintendo. According to the publisher, Nintendo has acquired 80 percent of the company's shares.

Namco Bandai is considering the sale as a way to strengthen its relationship with Nintendo and is not entirely ending its involvement with Monolith Soft. Namco Bandai will retain 16 percent of the developer's shares and will continue to count the studio among its partners. Best known as the developer behind Namco Bandai's Baten Kaitos and Xenosaga series of role-playing games, Monolith Soft is also currently at work on Nintendo's Disaster: Day of Crisis for the Wii.

Neither company's domestic representatives had returned GameSpot's request for comment as of press time.

So, when do I get my Xenosaga Prime?

DarkSilver · Post by **DarkSilver** » 2007-04-27 07:08pm

..Wow....

This will mean some possibly awesome games for Wii and DS....

nice move on their part, making Monolith First Party...

Archaic` · Post by **Archaic`** » 2007-04-27 07:13pm

Second party. They haven't absorbed the studio, they just own the majority holding.

DarkSilver · Post by **DarkSilver** » 2007-04-27 10:31pm

ah damn...my bad

Second Party then.

CaptHawkeye · Post by **CaptHawkeye** » 2007-04-27 11:05pm

My real question is what will they do with the studio itself? Will they allow Monolith to resurrect Xenosaga as it so hoped to do in the future? Will I be able to slice and dice Gnosis with my Wiimote? Will I be able to play as KOS MOS in Super Smash Brothers?

Archaic` · Post by **Archaic`** » 2007-04-27 11:59pm

I'd be very surprised if they didn't let Monolith resurrect Xenosaga. When a franchise gets to the point where it can spawn an anime series, they'd be insane to not milk it for all it's worth.

CaptHawkeye · Post by **CaptHawkeye** » 2007-04-28 08:00am

Episode 1 did get to that point. The problem was, Episode 2 stepped all over that progress. I don't think Episode 2 was a terrible game. It just did some rather silly things to a fragile franchise that needed strength at the time, not mistakes. Namco had intended Xenosaga to be a million selling title by Episode 3. It wasn't. Also, the Monolith team itself was plauged by years of infighting. The writer for Xenosaga actually left the company after Episode 1 and refuses to even acknowledge the series' existence. (On her website she has a bannar asking people to refrain from talking or asking about Xenosaga.) Still, she left the team with scripts and storyboards supposedly going all the way to an "Episode 6".

(Oh yes, that was a misconception as well. Shion's story was ALWAYS intended to end with Episode 3. Another story arc was planned to begin with Episode 4 that involved KOS MOS and chaos more heavily.)

Although I personally think most of the damage was done by Namco itself. They did virtually no advertising at all. And did retarded things like censoring and cutting important scenes.

But that's just Namco, and as we know, Namco isn't in anywhere near as good a position economically as Nintendo. You're right, Nintendo would have to be insane not to do something with Xenosaga at this point.