Monolith Soft

Not to be confused with Monolith Productions, an American video game studio.

Monolith Software Inc.
Monolith Soft
Native name
株式会社モノリスソフト
Kabushiki gaisha Monorisu Sofuto
Company type
IndustryVideo games
GenreVideo game developer
Founded1 October 1999; 25 years ago (1999-10-01) in Tokyo, Japan
Founders
Headquarters
Meguro, Tokyo
,
Japan
Number of locations
3[a] (2022)
Key people
  • Representative Director and CEO
  • Hirohide Sugiura
  • Directors
  • Tetsuya Takahashi
  • Tadashi Nomura
  • Tomohiro Yahara
  • Yasuyuki Honne
ProductsGames
Brands
Increase ¥491 million (2020)
Number of employees
264 (2023)
Parent
Websitewww.monolithsoft.co.jp
Footnotes / references
[1][2]

Monolith Software Inc.,[b] trading as Monolith Soft, is a Japanese video game development studio originally owned by Namco (later Bandai Namco) until being bought out by Nintendo in 2007, best known for the Xenoblade Chronicles series of games. The company was founded in 1999 by Tetsuya Takahashi with the support and cooperation of Masaya Nakamura, the founder of Namco. Their first project was the Xenosaga series, a spiritual successor to the Square-developed Xenogears. Multiple Square staff would join Takahashi at Monolith Soft including Hirohide Sugiura and Yasuyuki Honne.

In addition to the Xenosaga series, Monolith Soft worked on other projects including Baten Kaitos and Namco × Capcom, the precursor to their later Project X Zone series, along with assisting on projects from other developers. While several of its games have released on the PlayStation 2, the majority of its games have released on Nintendo platforms following the acquisition.

As of 2022, Monolith Soft operates in three locations in Japan; its main office in Meguro, Tokyo and the secondary Osaki Studio similarly based in Tokyo, who produce the company's original video game properties; and a studio in Kyoto with mainly artists as its employees, which acts as an assisting developer for both Monolith Soft Tokyo and for some Nintendo internal franchises. According to an interview published on the website of the company in February 2022, Monolith Soft's Kyoto studio has over 30 employees, which would leave the Tokyo studios with roughly 230 staff in total.[3]

The design approaches of Monolith Soft have shifted over its lifetime, with early games such as Xenosaga and Baten Kaitos being distinguished by a narrative-heavy approach, while later games have focused more on gameplay. The company's stated goals are to create projects with wide creative freedom and to allow younger developers to contribute to these projects. The company is also notable for its focus on promoting a comfortable working environment with little to no overtime in contrast to the majority of other Japanese game developers, alongside collaborating with other studios and companies.


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  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Profile was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Profit2020 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "『あつまれ どうぶつの森』家具デザイン担当 | 京都スタジオ スタッフインタビュー | インタビュー | RECRUIT". モノリスソフト (in Japanese). Retrieved 23 May 2023.