It’s recently been revealed that Xenoblade Chronicles 2 only had 40 staff working on its development, and only three programmers. This is remarkable given the level of quality of the third installment in the Xenoblade franchise. It’s easily one of the best games currently available on the Nintendo Switch, and we ranked it as the best game of 2017. Monolith Soft, and in turn the Xenoblade franchise, has been an excellent investment for Nintendo. It was revealed during Nintendo’s quarterly briefing that Xenoblade 2 sold over one million units in its first month of release, eclipsing all previous Xenoblade games. In an interview with the director of the Persona series, Katsuro Hashino, Takahashi-san explained the situation.
“Monolith Tokyo has a little less than 100 developers.
“Of that group, between 50% to 60% was helping Nintendo with Zelda (Breath of the Wild). Of the remaining 40 to 50 people, several were part of R&D (Research & Development), and the Xenoblade Chronicles 2 staff was made of the remaining 40-plus members.”
Considering Xenoblade Chronicles 2 came out only two years after Xenoblade Chronicles X, it’s nothing short of miraculous that they were able to create such a magnificent game with what was essentially a shell staff, not to mention conceive one of the greatest RPGs of the modern era. Given the game’s commercial success, the franchise will likely receive more installments, which is great news for Xeno fans.