Update:
Nintendo has now published a special anniversary video celebrating 25 years of Monolith Soft. The developer has also opened a special 25th anniversary webpage featuring multiple commemorative wallpapers as well as a special message from Representative Director Hirohide Sugiura:
Monolith Soft is pleased to announce its 25th anniversary.
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all of you who have played and enjoyed the games we have released, to all of the people involved who have helped us create our games, including our partner companies and external creators, and to our staff and their families.
Looking back, 25 years have seemed long but short at the same time. There were many twists and turns, but I feel that the results of facing and overcoming various problems one by one have led to where we are today.
Since our founding in October 1999, our staff has grown significantly, we now have three development bases, and we have worked on many major titles, but at the same time, I don't think I have been able to fully feel satisfied with having succeeded or achieved anything. This is something I will continue to pursue as long as Monolith Soft exists, and it's probably something I will never be able to achieve in the future.
If Monolith Soft is to continue on into the future, it is still in its "Genesis" stage. We want the company's history to continue for 100, 200, or even 500 years, so we want to strive for even higher quality without being satisfied with the status quo.
We would like to thank you for your continued support in the future.
Original:
The talented Japanese developer Monolith Soft is this week celebrating its 25th anniversary as a video game company!
It started in 1999 under Namco with the team starting out with the release of the role-playing game Xenosaga Episode I for the PlayStation 2 in 2002. A year later it released the GameCube exclusive series Baten Kaitos, which eventually spawned a prequel in 2006.
This led to Nintendo's ownership of the developer in 2007, which saw the release of titles like Disaster: Day of Crisis and the birth of the Xenoblade Chronicles series, which continued the legacy of the Xeno RPG series.
Nowadays, apart from the Xenoblade Chronicles games, Monolith also plays a major role in the development of key Nintendo titles - offering support for series like The Legend of Zelda, Splatoon and Animal Crossing.
It most recently helped out with the 2023 hit The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - working on the design, programming and graphics. In the same year, it also released some DLC for Xenoblade Chronicles 3.