Nintendo buys Monolith Soft

[Shino]

I've gain even more faith that Disaster is going to be awesome. Last time they bought someone was RetroStudios, and it only gave us one if not the best game on Gamecube.

[Jimbob]

This is good news for the RPG fans, as well as Nintendo fans. Baten Kaitos was a great game and with the developers now 2nd party to Nintendo this can only be a good move by the big N

[ShadowV7]

This is awesome news.Now there's no excuse for RPGs to be in development.And by god do I need my Wii RPGs and soon...

 

 

Why do RPGs always seem to take ages to appear on a console.

[system_error]

Meh. Why not Camelot ... better franchise, Namco not involved and to be honest without tri-Crescendo Baten Kaitos is nothing.

[Teppo Holmqvist]

and to be honest without tri-Crescendo Baten Kaitos is nothing.

 

During interview, Monolith's rep said that only things that Tri-Crescendo were responsible for Baten Kaitos: Origins were music and part of card mechanics. Story, graphics, and the rest were done by Monolith (even game's credits support this claim). The game was much better than the first which was done 50-50 between Tri and Mono. And do you really believe that Monolith wouldn't get help directly from Nintendo if they needed it? Nintendo has more than enough ability and resources to turn lackluster* developer into good one.

 

* Some examples; Kuju, Retro

[McMad]

Awesome news, can't wait to see what Nintendo has planned for this Studio.

[Kav]

During interview, Monolith's rep said that only things that Tri-Crescendo were responsible for Baten Kaitos: Origins were music and part of card mechanics. Story, graphics, and the rest were done by Monolith (even game's credits support this claim). The game was much better than the first which was done 50-50 between Tri and Mono. And do you really believe that Monolith wouldn't get help directly from Nintendo if they needed it? Nintendo has more than enough ability and resources to turn lackluster* developer into good one.

 

* Some examples; Kuju, Retro

 

Note Retro, who with the help of Nintendo, created one of (if not THE) best games of last generation!

 

I've got a lot of faith with the games Monolith will be creating now!

[system_error]

During interview, Monolith's rep said that only things that Tri-Crescendo were responsible for Baten Kaitos: Origins were music and part of card mechanics. Story, graphics, and the rest were done by Monolith (even game's credits support this claim). The game was much better than the first which was done 50-50 between Tri and Mono. And do you really believe that Monolith wouldn't get help directly from Nintendo if they needed it? Nintendo has more than enough ability and resources to turn lackluster* developer into good one.

 

* Some examples; Kuju, Retro

 

 

Well Kuju and Retro are great in my eyes. My problem is that I never really got into Baten Kaitos and therfor I am not to happy about that whole deal. There could have been much better deals. I wonder if those guys are really that great if Nintendo puts money on the table or maybe Namco give them away for less than expected.

 

But my initial statement is still valid - I think the money was spent on the wrong company.

[McMad]

Camelot is pretty much a second party company to Nintendo anyway, why would Nintendo need to spend money on them needlessly?

 

I'm sure they probably have something up their sleves for the Wii or DS at least, although they have been a bit quiet in the past few years...

[The-chosen-one]

i hope that retro studios finish that game they promised on th gamecube that they bring it to the wii with some updated graphics and stuff the Game Ravenblade when i saw the trailer i was so excited but after that whe never heard from that game

 

Beta trailer from the game:

[Tellyn]

This is good news, and has a lot more potential than probably meets the eye. As soon as Disaster is released, a good move from Nintendo would be to have Monolith re-release the Baten Kaitos series for the Wii in all regions. They could add some pointer controls or just make it compatible with the Classic as well as GC, a few graphical upgrades. Origins probably won't be released in Europe, so a collection of the original and Origins would be brilliant for Wii.

 

i hope that retro studios finish that game they promised on th gamecube that they bring it to the wii with some updated graphics and stuff the Game Ravenblade when i saw the trailer i was so excited but after that whe never heard from that game

 

Beta trailer from the game:

 

They had five games planned for the GameCube, all of which were ordered to be cancelled by Miyamoto except for Action Adventure, which turned out to be Metroid Prime. One, a racing game (the name escapes me) was reportedly almost complete, and had online functionality. Easy port to the Wii.

[system_error]

Camelot is pretty much a second party company to Nintendo anyway, why would Nintendo need to spend money on them needlessly?

 

I'm sure they probably have something up their sleves for the Wii or DS at least, although they have been a bit quiet in the past few years...

 

Uhm no. Camelot did a few games for Nintendo out of good will and mutual agreement - now they focus on some online golf games for PC.

 

I bet Camelot has the better resources (developer, ideas, franchise) for a lot less money.

[McMad]

Uhm no. Camelot did a few games for Nintendo out of good will and mutual agreement - now they focus on some online golf games for PC.

 

I bet Camelot has the better resources (developer, ideas, franchise) for a lot less money.

 

The only significant franchise Camelot has is Golden Sun, that's it, Shining Force belongs to Sega and every other title the company has made recently have been Mario sports titles.

 

And how are their developers better in your opinion? I remember hearing pretty average stuff about the last few games Camelot made; Mario Sports games.

 

And ideas? Some of the main criticisms of Toadstool Tour and Power Tennis were for not doing much new compared to the N64 titles.

 

I think this probably boils down just to that fact that you like Golden Sun more than Baten Kaitos. Fair enough, Golden Sun may be better than Baten Kaitos but In my opinion Nintendo has purchased the better company.

 

And I still think that we'll be seeing more Nintendo titles out of Camelot anyway.

[Darkspine S]

Thank God, more RPGs.

 

After the diabolical FF12, I need some decent Role playing games to heal the wounds.

[DCK]

Camelot is pretty much a second party company to Nintendo anyway, why would Nintendo need to spend money on them needlessly?

 

I'm sure they probably have something up their sleves for the Wii or DS at least, although they have been a bit quiet in the past few years...

Well, Camelot is only a small team and despite them making one-and-a-half (GS2 was copy-paste of GS1 with new story) excellent 2D RPG, it doesn't guarantee them making a 3D RPG of the same class to fill up the RPG gap in Nintendo's lineup. Monolith has proven itself with Xenosaga and Baten Kaitos, which seemed to be great 3D RPGs and, on paper, especially with additional supervision by Nintendo, is a more capable team to make a large 3D RPG at the moment.

 

Interestingly though, Camelot's Wikipedia page lists a 'Future Release' called 'Camelot RPG - Wii' linking to this source. I'm not sure what to think of it.

[david.dakota]

Its more interesting that Nintendo are buying developers, rather than offloading them (Rare, Leftfield). Hopefully, with the recent increase in profits, Nintendo will splash the cash and get some more 2nd party developers on board.

[4q2]

Its more interesting that Nintendo are buying developers, rather than offloading them (Rare, Leftfield).

 

 

I dunno, there seems to be a trend with N selling off companies about the time they turn average. No doubt Monolith will go the same way.

 

Usually a move like by Nintendo this means some special stuff is on the horizon from a particular dev....Cant wait to see Day of Crisis now.

[Darkspine S]

Who else should the Big N buy?

 

I'd vote Free Radical, they have some great talent.

 

EDIT: Didn't most of the best Ex-Rare members go there?

[Cube]

EDIT: Didn't most of the best Ex-Rare members go there?

 

Pretty much the whole GoldenEye/Perfect Dark team left Rare to form a new company (Free Radical).

[Darkspine S]

Pretty much the whole GoldenEye/Perfect Dark team left Rare to form a new company (Free Radical).

 

They would be perfect for Wii FPS games then.

[Jamba]

I'm guessing that they think that the team is so talented and that Disaster is going to be so good that Nintendo would rather have the money in THEIR pockets.

[DCK]

Who else should the Big N buy?

 

I'd vote Free Radical, they have some great talent.

 

EDIT: Didn't most of the best Ex-Rare members go there?

Any FPS team would be great. I vote Free Radical too, but I really can't see EA letting them go.

 

Other interesting talented developers might be Capcom's Flagship and Clover Studio, Silicon Knights (ditch Dyack), Sega's Amusement Vision, Factor 5 and Ubisoft Montreal. I don't think they are realistic purchases though, both from Nintendo's and the developer's perspective.

[pedrocasilva]

I dunno, there seems to be a trend with N selling off companies about the time they turn average. No doubt Monolith will go the same way.

 

Usually a move like by Nintendo this means some special stuff is on the horizon from a particular dev....Cant wait to see Day of Crisis now.

I doubt it, Nintendo only sold Rareware due to a sum of things, their internal development was stale, their sales were not that great, and their money management was unificient, they were spending so much on Starfox Adventure that the development actually stopped a lot of times with lack of money, and it wasn't that great in Nintendo's eyes.

 

But above all, Nintendo never gone over the 51% stock quota on Rare, but the brothers who founded it demanded back then that Nintendo bought their share, and realistically it simply wasn't worth it business-wise back then. (apart from sentimentalisms)

 

I believe this was the last drop, sort of thing, rare wouldn't have ever been sold if it wasn't for that.

 

Other reason would have been that it's hard to manage a studio in England and they'd have to step in there for sake of quality, a studio located in Japan is easier.

 

Nintendo usually isn't intrusive about their relation with her second party's, they didn't bought a immense share of the likes of Kuju, Monster inc, Silicon Knights and others, that's just their style, they prefer not wasting their money, and just keep these studios independent on good terms (buying too much share could be seen as a attempt of takeover), also that way if their productivity or quality drops, they don't have to keep funding them.

 

Even Retro Studios, Nintendo wouldn't have bought 100% of their stock (turning them into a first party) if they didn't have to.

I'm guessing that they think that the team is so talented and that Disaster is going to be so good that Nintendo would rather have the money in THEIR pockets.

I wouldn't bet that on Disaster to be honest. Nintendo would get that exclusive anyway, why buying them? Nintendo doesn't show pity, business is business.

 

Thing is... probably Namco was thinking of dissolving (or selling) Monolith after Crisis was done, reasons for that... Xenosaga sold kinda crap (it didn't even had any publicity to start with) it was supposed to be 6 episodes and ended with 3, and the budget for them was clearly decreasing, then Baten Kaitos, the first one had a CGI FMV, the second (origins) didn't... Why is that? I say lack of funding, they were really getting narrowed, even the last crisis image, last september (at TGS) doesn't seem high budget to me:

 

 

Also... we know for sure that Monolith is doing a RPG (not Baten Kaitos 3) for Wii:

 

IGN Wii: Monolith is known for RPGs. What motivated you to start a non-RPG product like Disaster?

 

Hirohide Sugiura: I think it is only because our company started with RPGs, but we are always examining various ideas and various possibilities. Disaster is one of them. But, it does not mean that we have changed direction. We are also developing an RPG game separately.

Source: http://wii.ign.com/articles/731/731580p1.html

 

Cubed3: Has work begun on a Nintendo Wii version of Baten Kaitos or any ideas been formulated yet? And can fans expect Baten Kaitos to remain exclusive to Nintendo formats?

 

Hirohide Sugiura: At present, we do not have concrete plan to produce Baten Kaitos for Wii. However, there are several on-going titles exclusively for the Nintendo format. Please look forward to them.

Source: http://www.cubed3.com/article/5654/

 

And considering what they've done on PS2 and what they done with crisis (from what we saw) that probably most of the team is not focusing on that, I mean... they did this on PS2:

 

 

Unless Crisis played catch up with the hardware in the last months... it didn't look super, I'm waiting a good game, but it looked kinda low budget.

 

Bare in mind that Xenosaga wasn't even that high budget; I don't think most people realize what we just bought... We bought former Square-Enix Xenogears+Chrono Cross Team. (most of it anyway).

 

Some of the team even worked in Chrono Trigger, the sound composer (Yasunori Mitsuda) for example, is the same who did most of Chrono Trigger soundtrack; sounding good?

 

Above all they have a extra advantage for Nintendo; their RPG's focus on future punk/mecha environments rather than medieval setting that would kinda clash and be overshadowed by Zelda being made in-house

 

I'm expecting the real results to come in 2008, Crisis should be filler.

[DCK]

Your knowledge of the industry is scary sometimes.

[pedrocasilva]

Your knowledge of the industry is scary sometimes.

Nothing much, I didn't knew a lot of these from head, I liked Monolith already and knew their members came from Chrono Cross and Xenogears teams, but not much besides that; after knowing Nintendo bought them, which is unusual given that the last time they did it was for Retro, I just had to define a pattern, 80% share is immense, we never owned that much of rare for instance, so it must have been some kind of condition made by Namco, and from that I just did some research.

 

It's more like collecting information, than knowing a lot beforehand. If someone digs after this trail they'll probably find a lot more "key members" with a good curriculum.