Monolith Soft, the studio behind Xenoblade Chronicles series, is expanding its internal engine for use in future titles thanks to its newly established R&D department (thanks, Automatic).
That’s according to the company’s Creative Director Tetsuya Takahashi and lead programmer Michihiko Inaba, who in a recent interview with the Japanese outlet. CG worldspoke about the company’s future plans as it plans to undertake larger development projects.
According to Inaba, the tool is currently being developed based on the tool the company created in 2010. Xenoblade Chronicleswith the goal that it will one day be managed entirely by an in-house R&D team. Currently, several different development teams are working on the engine’s modeling and effects technology before it’s all compiled into the finished product.
Despite the difficulties of maintaining the engines in-house, Takahashi believes it will all be worth it: “We currently do not have the option of using engines produced by other companies,” he told CGworld, “This is because in-house produced engines are easier to customize to fit our needs and are easier to use.”
According to Takahashi, Monolith Soft had wanted an in-house R&D department for years, even though they had too few employees to do so without disrupting the development team. That was until the company began collaborating with Nintendo, “as the scale of development became larger, the level of development requirements also increased”.
These growing demands lead to an increased workforce and, therefore, room for R&D teams. The new division (led by Inaba) aims to streamline the development process, support tool development, and research/develop new technologies, all of which seem like solid options as the company looking forward to future games.
As for what the future holds for the company, we’ll have to wait and see. We were overwhelmed by Xenoblade Chronicles 3 when it hits the Switch in 2022, so we’re hoping that the team is preparing something for ‘Switch 2’ (though that of course remains unconfirmed). All eyes are on this luxurious new engine, right?
