Monolith Soft

Monolith Software Inc.

Headquarters in Nakameguro GT Tower's 12th floor in Meguro, Tokyo, Japan
Trade name	Monolith Soft
Native name	株式会社モノリスソフト
Romanized name	Kabushiki gaisha Monorisu Sofuto
Company type	Kabushiki gaisha Subsidiary
Industry	Video games
Genre	Video game developer
Founded	1 October 1999; 24 years ago (1999-10-01) in Tokyo, Japan
Founders	Hirohide Sugiura Tetsuya Takahashi Yasuyuki Honne
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
Products	Games
Brands	Xenosaga series Baten Kaitos series Xenoblade Chronicles series Project X Zone series
Net income	¥491 million (2020)
Number of employees	264 (2023)
Parent	Namco (1997-2006) Bandai Namco (2006–2007) Nintendo (96.67%) (since 2007)
Website	www.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 building is in Meguro, Tokyo and the secondary Osaki Studio similarly based in Tokyo produces 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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