After losing Rare, Silicon Knights and a handful of other talented second-party development contracts, Nintendo’s finally on the offensive in the Corporate Circle of Life, gobbling up other companies for its own profit. Today, Bandai Namco Holdings announced that Nintendo is purchasing an 80% stake in Monolith Soft, makers of theXenosagatrilogy andBaten Kaitosseries, as well as the upcomingDisaster: Day of Crisison the Wii.
As part of the deal, Bandai Namco will retain a 16% share of the studio for its own dastardly schemes, but this news bodes well for Nintendo. On top of its own history of for-the-most-part excellent games (XSIInotwithstanding — that game makes the baby Jesus cry), Monolith Soft includes a slew of former Square employees responsible for titles likeChrono CrossandXenogears. Years after the mass-exodus of quality RPG development that went out the door with Square prior to the Nintendo 64’s advent, it looks like the big N is finally going to get some muscle in the realm of epic androgynous gaming.
What with Nintendo’s money-printing hardware and all — thoseevil,evilmen and their quest for, y’know, profit — it’s surprising that this kind of thing doesn’t happen more often now that Nintendo’s got the green to do it. There are plenty of worthy development studios that would fit right at home with Nintendo. Why the hell hasn’t anybody purchasedTreasureand showered them in cash and women? Nintendo, get on it!
[ViaIGN]
