Monolith Soft has been growing year after year, and I hope they keep making games forever

Their last game was Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition, but they have more in the works

Monolith Soft, the company behind the Xenoblade series, has been on the up and up for pretty much its entire existence. But things really changed in 2007 when Nintendo acquired it, and they’ve been helping out in various first-party heavy-hitters (including Breath of the Wild) ever since; while creating their own original works, mostly of the Xenoblade variety.

This report from Nintendo Enthusiast shows their growth first-hand though, through detailed data attained from their company page. The data doesn’t lie! In 2017 they were at 150 employees, and now they’re at 272. Literally each year they grew as a studio, hitting 200 people in April of 2019, and are now on their way to 300, possibly by the end of the year if their growth continues.

Interestingly, the company also put a specific emphasis on how many different people they employ compared to the average Japanese developer, as 27.6% of their workforce is represented by women. Their company page also states that they have 75 million yen ($694,251) in capital.

You can find the full breakdown below. Unlike a lot of other developers, say, housed under Activision or EA, the occasional “help out on big Nintendo projects on the side while making our own stuff” arrangement seems to be working out well for them.

Company [Monolith Soft via Nintendo Enthusiast]

Monolith Soft staff hires

• (Released Xenoblade Chronicles 2 in December 2017)
• December 2017 – 150 employees
• April 2018 – 163 employees
• August 2018 – 171 employees
• (Released Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna – The Golden Country in September 2018)
• November 2018 – 184 employees
• January 2019 – 193 employees
• April 2019 – 209 employees
• June 2019 – 215 employees
• September 2019 – 224 employees
• December 2019 – 236 employees
• April 2020 – 248 employees
• (Released Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition in May 2020)
• August 2020 – 254 employees
• December 2020 – 261 employees
• April 2021 – 272 employees