Monolith Soft

v • t • e
Monolith Soft
Location	Tokyo, Japan
Founded	October 1, 1999
Parent	Nintendo (96.67%)

Monolith Software Inc. (株式会社モノリスソフト), best known as Monolith Soft (モノリスソフト) and sometimes shortened to M.L.S.I., is a Japanese game developer founded on October 1st, 1999 by a group of former Squaresoft employees leaded by Tetsuya Takahashi, Hirohide Sugiura and Yasuyuki Honne, with the financial support of Namco.

As a subsidiary of Namco Limited (later Namco Bandai Games and currently Bandai Namco Games), they developed games for multiple systems, mainly for the PlayStation 2 and GameCube. Their debut game was Xenosaga Episode I, part of the Xenosaga series, a spiritual successor to Xenogears, which many staff members worked on while employed at Square. Other games developed under Namco ownership includes Baten Kaitos and Namco x Capcom.

In April 2007, Nintendo agreed with Monolith Soft to purchase a 80% of ownership on the company, while Bandai Namco would retain 16% until 2012, when they completely divested. Since then, Monolith Soft has created the Xenoblade Chronicles series, itself a spiritual successor to Xenosaga. Other games include Soma Bringer, Disaster: Day of Crisis and Project X Zone, which is a spiritual sequel to Namco x Capcom, as well supporting on the development of Super Smash Bros. Brawl ^[1].

In 2011, Monolith Soft opened a Kyoto studio near to the Nintendo's headquarters, to provide assistence on game development. So far, this division helped on the development of various games from The Legend of Zelda series (Skyward Sword, A Link Between Worlds, and Breath of the Wild) and Animal Crossing entries (New Leaf, Happy Home Designer, and New Horizons), and also collaborated with the Splatoon series and Pikmin 3.

Monolith Soft has been the developer for all games in the Xeno series with the exception of Xenogears, which was developed and published by Square (who, as Square Enix, are also the current holders of the intellectual property of the game and its universe) ^[2].

List of games[edit]

Year	Game	Platform	Publisher	Notes
2002	Xenosaga Episode I - Der Wille zur Macht	PlayStation 2	Namco
2003	Xenosaga Episode I Reloaded	PlayStation 2	Namco
2003	Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean	Nintendo Gamecube	Namco Nintendo (Oceania)	Co-developed with tri-Crescendo
2004	Xenosaga Freaks	PlayStation 2	Namco
2004	Xenosaga Episode II - Jenseits von Gut und Böse	PlayStation 2	Namco Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (PAL)
2004	Xenosaga: Pied Piper	Mobile	Namco	Co-developed with Namco Mobile and Tom Create
2005	Namco X Capcom	PlayStation 2	Namco	Co-developed with Banpresto
2006	Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII	Playstation 2	Square Enix	Support development
2006	Baten Kaitos Origins	Nintendo GameCube	Nintendo	Co-developed with tri-Crescendo
2006	Xenosaga I & II	Nintendo DS	Namco	Co-developed with Tom Create
2006	Xenosaga Episode III - Also Sprach Zarathustra	PlayStation 2	Bandai Namco
2008	Super Smash Bros. Brawl	Wii	Nintendo	Support development
2008	Soma Bringer	Nintendo DS	Nintendo
2008	Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier	Nintendo DS	Bandai Namco Atlus (North America)
2008	Disaster: Day of Crisis	Wii	Nintendo
2009	Dragon Ball Z: Attack of the Saiyans	Nintendo DS	Bandai Namco
2010	Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier Exceed	Nintendo DS	Bandai Namco
2010	Xenoblade Chronicles	Wii	Nintendo	Also released digitally on Wii U
2011	The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword	Wii	Nintendo	Support development
2012	Animal Crossing: New Leaf	Nintendo 3DS	Nintendo	Support development
2012	Project X Zone	Nintendo 3DS	Bandai Namco	Co-developed with Banpresto
2013	Pikmin 3	Wii U	Nintendo	Support development
2013	The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds	Nintendo 3DS	Nintendo	Support development
2015	Xenoblade Chronicles 3D	New Nintendo 3DS	Nintendo	Ported by Monster Games
2015	Xenoblade Chronicles X	Wii U	Nintendo
2015	Splatoon	Wii U	Nintendo	Support development
2015	Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer	Nintendo 3DS	Nintendo	Support development
2015	Project X Zone 2	Nintendo 3DS	Bandai Namco	Co-developed with Banpresto
2017	The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild	Wii U Nintendo Switch	Nintendo	Support development
2017	Splatoon 2	Nintendo Switch	Nintendo	Support development
2017	Xenoblade Chronicles 2	Nintendo Switch	Nintendo
2018	Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion	Nintendo Switch	Nintendo	Support development
2018	Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~ The Golden Country	Nintendo Switch	Nintendo
2020	Animal Crossing: New Horizons	Nintendo Switch	Nintendo	Support development
2020	Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition	Nintendo Switch	Nintendo
2022	Xenoblade Chronicles 3	Nintendo Switch	Nintendo
2022	Splatoon 3	Nintendo Switch	Nintendo	Support development
2023	Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed	Nintendo Switch	Nintendo
2023	The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom	Nintendo Switch	Nintendo	Support development
2023	Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster	Nintendo Switch PC	Bandai Namco	Ported by Logicalbeat
2024	Splatoon 3: Side Order	Nintendo Switch	Nintendo	Support development
2025	Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition	Nintendo Switch	Nintendo	Support development