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Monolith Soft reports 138.2% YoY profit increase for the fiscal year ending March 2021

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nintendoeverything.com

Monolith Soft reports 138.2% profit increase, Xenoblade a key contributor

Monolith Soft reported its financial results this week, and it turns out that the Nintendo subsidiary had a fantastic year. For the fiscal period ending March 2021, profit was reported at 1.171 billion yen. That’s by far the highest amount for the company over the past several years. During the...
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gamebiz.jp

モノリスソフト、2021年3月期の決算は最終利益が138.2％増の11億7100万円と大幅増益…『ゼノブレイド　ディフィニティブ・エディション』を開発 | gamebiz

モノリスソフトの2021年3月期(第22期)の決算は、最終利益が前の期比138.2%増の11億7100万円だった。前の期(2020年3月期)の実績は、4億9100万円だった。7月7日付の「官報」に掲載された「決算公告」で判明した。同社は、任天堂のゲーム開発子会社で、ゼノサーガシリーズやバテン・カイトスシリーズなどが代表作となっている。同社によると、この期の開発実績としては、『Xenoblade …
gamebiz.jp gamebiz.jp
deepl translation:
Monolith Soft's financial results for the fiscal year ending March 2021 (22nd term) showed a 138.2% increase in final profit over the previous term to 1.171 billion yen. The results for the previous fiscal year (ending March 2020) were 491 million yen, according to a public notice of financial results published in the Official Gazette on July 7.

The company is a game development subsidiary of Nintendo, and its representative works include the Xenosaga series and the Baten Kaitos series.

According to the company, its development achievements in this period include Xenoblade Definitive Edition.
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here's a look at Monolith Soft's operating profit over the years:
monolith-soft-profitozk1j.jpeg
 

RedDevil

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Dec 25, 2017
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The japanese source cited by Nintendo Everything doesn't say Xenoblade is a key contributor, just that they released XCDE in that period. Also doesn't that period include their involvement in Animal Crossing?
 
Mr.Fletcher

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Nov 18, 2017
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Not really sure where Xenoblade being a key contributor came from when the article doesn't really back that up.

Still, it's great to see Monolith Soft doing well.
 
WestEgg

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I wish they would give a break down of where the revenue was coming from. Obviously Xenoblade DE was thier big release in the last year, but I'm sure there are several other factors at work, such as their cut of the Pyra/Mythra smash DLC, general work on other series, merchandise, residual sales etc.
 
Mr.Fletcher

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WestEgg said:
I wish they would give a break down of where the revenue was coming from. Obviously Xenoblade DE was thier big release in the last year, but I'm sure there are several other factors at work, such as their cut of the Pyra/Mythra smash DLC, general work on other series, merchandise, residual sales etc.
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Yeah, I'd love to get the numbers. I swear PlayerEssence said Torna had sold like 500k in one of his videos, but I've never seen that number anywhere.
 
Zarckoh

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Oct 25, 2017
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Power of the Pyra/Mythra Scale figures.

A gacha game would perform great, it's a similar to the situation to the Fire Emblem figures that were selling at whale prices due to insane demand.
 
4859

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RedDevil said:
The japanese source cited by Nintendo Everything doesn't say Xenoblade is a key contributor, just that they released XCDE in that period. Also doesn't that period include their involvement in Animal Crossing?
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Hmmm.... This is what a web translator pulled up for me.

According to the company, development results during this period include "Xenoblade Definitive Edition".

so as far as I can tell red devil is on the money.

that really irritates me Nintendo everything.
 
Personablue

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How does this work? Does they earn independently? I thought their revenue profit is included in Nintendo overall
 
Zedark

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I find it weird that their revenue is up so much compared to the FY when XBC2 released. Can anyone explain why this year was so much bigger? Perhaps royalties from ACNH development?
 
Oregano

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Zedark said:
I find it weird that their revenue is up so much compared to the FY when XBC2 released. Can anyone explain why this year was so much bigger? Perhaps royalties from ACNH development?
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If they get royalties like that Pikmin 3 Deluxe would have contributed too.
 
PumpkinPieAddict

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I did my part. Xenoblade 1 on Wii was so good I have their catalogue in my to play list.

Hopefully they continue investing in their company and feel confident to do more outside the box storytelling.
 
Mr.Fletcher

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After DE's initial release, sales slowed considerably - based on some of the figures we saw, it wouldn't surprise me if XC2 began outpacing it after a couple of months.

There's no way that jump is Xenoblade. It'll have contributed, but it won't be the lion's share for sure.
 
ILikeFeet

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it's probably due to their work on games that aren't their own. Honne's Kyoto department might be the moneymaker here
 
cowbanana

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I played Xenoblade Chronicles: DE and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 + Torna back to back and it was a grand experience. It's been a while since I've experience such adventure and magnificent environments. Utterly fantastic games, even with the cringe anime shit, the worst of which luckily only takes up mere minutes out of 100+ hours.
 

RedDevil

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Dec 25, 2017
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Zedark said:
Quite possible, but that would be change compared to XBCDE and ACNH, I think.
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Considering the monster that was ACNH in that period, it may have done more for them than anything else, my guess without more specific numbers. XCDE being the best selling release of XC1 most definitely helped, then there's XC2 still doing a little here and there P3D and likely other stuff.
 
Raftina

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Jun 27, 2020
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Zedark said:
I find it weird that their revenue is up so much compared to the FY when XBC2 released. Can anyone explain why this year was so much bigger? Perhaps royalties from ACNH development?
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This is net profit, not revenue.

What I find a bit surprising is that they made $12 million in profits.
 
Anaron

Anaron

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Oct 26, 2017
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Super happy for them.

But I am incredibly nervous that this means more of the worst things XB2 offered.
 
cw_sasuke

cw_sasuke

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Oct 27, 2017
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Didn't know they post their own financial results like that.

Will be interesting to see the kind of money they make once they released that XB gacha mobile game.
 

rrost

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Jul 20, 2018
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Do they have their independent revenue? AFAIK they are a development house, not a publisher. They doesn't sell things. And aren't they part of Nintendo proper?

Weird thing to report.
 
Naha-

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Really happy for them. It the next game is as good or better than XC2, It might become my favorite franchise.

I wished I had a legal way to play Xenogears and Xenosaga, emulation it's really bothersome for me.
 
Oregano

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rrost said:
Do they have their independent revenue? AFAIK they are a development house, not a publisher. They doesn't sell things. And aren't they part of Nintendo proper?

Weird thing to report.
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They're not completely owned by Nintendo. Monolithsoft leadership(Sugiura, Takahashi, Honne) own ~4% of the company still.

I think they're also the licensor for any Xenoblade merch(like the Pyra and Mythra statues).
 
BizzyBum

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The series is amazing and well deserved for Monolith Soft.

I have to imagine a XCX Remaster for the Switch at some point followed by XC3 for the Switch 2 launch window or soon after similar to XC2.
 
Katmeister

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I think Xenoblade could really explode in popularity even more if they dropped the current battle system and went for something more accessible like an action combat. It's probably a more important change to make than removing fan service to be honest. People will complain about Pyra on ERA but that's not what is turning away most of the potential market. It's the weird battle system and confusing mess of systems.

Though I do hope they tone things down a lot for a sequel.
 
Hero of Legend

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Oregano said:
They're not completely owned by Nintendo. Monolithsoft leadership(Sugiura, Takahashi, Honne) own ~4% of the company still.

I think they're also the licensor for any Xenoblade merch(like the Pyra and Mythra statues).
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Nintendo own 97% of Monolith going by last year's annual report:

annual2003e.pdf (nintendo.co.jp)

Could be rounded up of course, but maybe one of those four leaders sold their share since before?

We're due for this year's report by the end of the month, which will hopefully finally show Next Level Games among the ranks. :P
 
Super Mega Man

Super Mega Man

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Jun 24, 2021
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Remember when Nintendo of America wasn't planning to localize Monolith's first critically acclaimed Nintendo exclusive (Xenoblade on Wii) and when they did they did it 2 years after Japan (and 1 year after Europe) and only half assedly by distributing a limited print to sell only at GameStops. Remember that shit?

2012 was forever ago, wasn't it.
 
EddyLovesTunaRolls

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Oct 27, 2017
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Super Mega Man said:
You have to admit it did bolster Fire Emblem's sales from zero to hero, am I right? Literally from zero (in the west).
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Marth in Smash is one of the main reasons Fire Emblem even got a chance in the west. You're right about that. They tried a few times and it almost got killed in the west again until Awakening sold better than anyone ever dreamed it could.

Now it's at the point where they proudly advertise Fire Emblem games worldwide alongside Zelda and Mario. I'm still a little tilted that Lyndis isn't a playable character yet.
 
Neoxon

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Super Mega Man said:
You have to admit it did bolster Fire Emblem's sales from zero to hero, am I right? Literally from zero (in the west).
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Smash helped bring Fire Emblem to the West, but that's about it. Even with Smash, Fire Emblem was on the brink of death before Awakening (which was originally intended to be the final FE game).

WestEgg said:
It did seem to help Xenoblade 2 a bit at least. I also imagine some of the Fighter's Pass/Individual download revenue is credited towards Monolith Soft. Though I agree with the idea that a lot of this is actually from Animal Crossing.
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Even that wasn't a big bump in the grand scheme of things. The primary issue was that the game was out of print.
 
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