has sold 80% of its stake in Monolith Soft, developer of Xenosaga, Baten Kaitos and Disaster for Wii, to none other than Nintendo, whilst retaining just 16%. A good sign that more traditional RPGs will be on the way..." /> News: Industry News | Nintendo Acquires Baten Kaitos Developer Page 1 - Cubed3

Industry News | Nintendo Acquires Baten Kaitos Developer

By Adam Riley 27.04.2007 21

Quick News - In what has come as quite surprising news, Bandai Namco has sold 80% of its stake in Monolith Soft, developer of Xenosaga, Baten Kaitos and Disaster for Wii, to none other than Nintendo, whilst retaining just 16%.

A good sign that more traditional RPGs will be on the way...

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Zero is offline. Zero 27.04.2007#1

YES CAN anyone say Baten Kaitos DS!!!!! AND EVEN Xenosage for Wii <3 I love Nintendo!

 
Nintendo Lad is offline. Nintendo Lad 27.04.2007#2

Baten Kaitos. Never played it. But it looked incredible.

Really hope a Wii version is on the way.

 
Laurelin is offline. Laurelin 27.04.2007#3

Baten Kaitos DS? Just why??? It's a good FF-Clone with a bit long story.
I loved it and am waiting desperately for 'Origins' here in Germany!
I hope they also bought the trademarks Baten Kaitos, Xenosaga and Co.
And I sure hope there will at last be some more RPGs for Nintendo-consoles (and not only for DS)!

Monolith wasn't the only one doing Baten Kaitos. tri-Crescendo helped a lot.
I think these are somewhat good news. I think RPGs are what Nintendo lacks the most...

I find your lack of faith disturbing!
 
Modplan Man is offline. Modplan Man 27.04.2007#4

Monolith are the ones also making Disaster: Day of Crisis if I'm right.

 
Monkey Wii. Pokémans is offline. Monkey Wii. Pok�mans 27.04.2007#5

A bit random and unusual of them to buy a Developer Smilie

{ Monkey Wii. ~ Nirbis Hater ~ Nintendo Fanboy }
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Tman!! is offline. Tman!! 27.04.2007#6

Yeah very random but Nintendo must have thought the time was right, and seeing that a lot of developers are beginning to look at their exclusivity deals and change their minds I think this is a very good move in ensuring that Baiten Kaitos stays on Nintendo platforms. And before anybody says anything I know why would any other console want a game from an underpowered console but weirder things have happened recently this being proof of that.


 
Raff is offline. Raff 27.04.2007#7

Well at least they're doing something for once. Not a bad studio I suppose.

It's going to be shit and you jolly well know it.
 
jamain is offline. jamain 27.04.2007#8

I think it's a particularly unexpected move after the release of the 'glory days' of second parties - Rare/Leftfield/silicon Knights etc. But it's a good one...bout time we saw some DAC screens though

 
bla bla bla is offline. bla bla bla 27.04.2007#9

this is absolutally good news, this just shows that nintendo have the money and are willing ot expand, they are up for a fight to conquer teh gaming world!

 
tiamat1990 is offline. tiamat1990 27.04.2007#10

Baten Kaitos was shit. Awesome though, so are they like a first party now??

 
Raff is offline. Raff 27.04.2007#11

Pretty much.

Apparently they mainly did the graphics for Baten Kaitos and the other developer did the rest.

I've never played any of their games, seem like pretty unremarkable JRPG drivel. From what they've shown, Disaster could be one long QTE and FMV thing.

It's going to be shit and you jolly well know it.
 
MattEvansC3 is offline. MattEvansC3 27.04.2007#12

I've heard good things about Xenosaga but Baten Kaitos is just meh. Nice to see Nintendo being proactive about such things, disappointed in seeing who they are being proactive over.

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Rejoice for the Lord will taketh his quarter and give much back to his followers.
 
Buffy the Fanboy Slayer 27.04.2007#13

Baten Kaitos is a sensational game. I had the misfortune of a corrupt memory card just as I finished the first disc. It is one of the very few games I have had, where I looked forward to finishing work so I could to get the next stage.

It wasn't just me, my 2 daughters loved it as well. Origins is also a great game (imported). Along with ToS, Zelda:WW and FireEmblem - Baten Kaitos was the best games on the Cube. So yes, not only do I look forward to the Wii version, but also the DS version. This is good news, indeed.

Temporarily banned until further notice.
 
Laurelin is offline. Laurelin 27.04.2007#14

no, it was not shit. It was fun and had a great battle-system. I hated Cardgames, loathe Yu-Gi-Oh! (still do), but I liked it with BK.

it had great Graphics. weird locations. It was quite lenghty with having to reaquire every main-charakter, but beside that it was fun. The battle-system was huge and cards withering away or turning into some other... side-quests... I was at a bit of a loss, never liked to pick up essences of items instead of the items themselves, but it was great, looking forward to Origins.

Nintendo bought this developer only 84 %. The other brands (Xenosaga,...) may remain at Namco and maybe Monolith will start new brands. But it's good that Nintendo aquired some with the knowledge of making RPGs. That I repeat.

By the way: Nintendo took over publishing BK Origins. BK 1 was published by Namco themselves. So maybe their aquisition was foreordained (I love this word!)

I find your lack of faith disturbing!
 
Slydevil is offline. Slydevil 27.04.2007#15

Grumbler said:
Well at least theyre doing something for once. Not a bad studio I suppose.

This.

It's good to see them pull their finger out their arse, because that means they're concerned about creating lots of good games to keep their customers happy. Even if they have been slow off the mark.

IANC said:
Dude yuor totally awesome. And i won't be killing you anytime soon.

 
Shig Guevara is offline. Shig Guevara 29.04.2007#16

I LOVE BAITEN KAITOS, I dont care what anyone says, that and tales of symphonia where the only games keeping me not selling my gamecube, then prime 2 and Resi 4 came along and I decided I would rather kill all my family in a murderous bloodbath using my chainsaw controller.

YES IM A RESI FANBOY I DONT CARE! Smilie

Its good to have more developers, as it means more games, and more games means more variations of genres which will atract different gamers with different preferences.

( Edited on 29.04.2007 13:17 by Shig Guevara )

 
Zapp is offline. Zapp 29.04.2007#17

Brilliant news, i liked Baiton Kaitos and Xenosaga is pretty awsome aswell! So i reckon a good purchase made!!

I see all these people insulting the Nintendo corporation because of the lack of mature content. Yet there is something about Nintendo (at least their games) that strikes a certain unadulterated feeling of joy!!!  Pokemon Y - 1048-9263-5562
Show Spoiler
 
jesusraz is offline. jesusraz 29.04.2007#18

Bandai Namco is to retain 16% of the stock so it can keep good relations with the developer. Monolith Soft has been keen to expand and widen its horizons and B-N felt letting Nintendo take such a controlling interest would help considerably.

As for licences, nothing is mentioned in the pdf release. So whether or not B-N keeps Xenosaga and Nintendo gets BK is completely unknown. Do not forget that Xeno 1+2 did get released on DS in Japan, so it's not a Sony-only franchise by any means.

Also, be sure to check out the interview we did with the company last year: http://www.cubed3.com/article/5654/ as it's full of info like multiple Wii games coming, a BK DS project that was halted (and could therefore be resurrected) and much more (like the split of what Monolith and tri-Crescendo did on BKO - i.e. MS did more than you might think) Smilie

Adam Riley [ Director :: Cubed3 ]

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Shig Guevara is offline. Shig Guevara 29.04.2007#19

What is namco bandai? Is it a seperate branch of namco or do namco as a singular no longer exist?

 
Galvanizer is offline. Galvanizer 30.04.2007#20

Maybe we can see some new 1st party RPGs now?

 
Zapp is offline. Zapp 30.04.2007#21

Shig Guevara said:
What is namco bandai? Is it a seperate branch of namco or do namco as a singular no longer exist?

Namco still exists... but its called now Namco-Bandai.... it was a merger that happened last year....

I see all these people insulting the Nintendo corporation because of the lack of mature content. Yet there is something about Nintendo (at least their games) that strikes a certain unadulterated feeling of joy!!!  Pokemon Y - 1048-9263-5562
Show Spoiler
 

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