Here's something you probably didn't know, Monolith Soft – the talented company behind the Xenoblade Chronicles series – helped out with Animal Crossing: New Horizons. No, this isn't some late April Fool's joke, it's all according to a new listing on the Japanese developer's website.

Unfortunately, there are no extra details about what exactly it did or how involved it was with the project. As odd as this might seem, Monolith Soft's Kyoto branch has previously provided development support for Animal Crossing: New Leaf and Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer. Since the company was acquired by Nintendo in 2007, it's helped out on various other titles as well, such as Splatoon and Pikmin 3.

More recently, the studio has grown to 243 employees across multiple branches and assisted with Splatoon 2 and the landscape design in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – all while pumping out new Xenoblade experiences at the same time. It's also been busy hiring staff for Breath of the Wild 2 and its next game due out on 29th May is Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition.

Given the scale of Nintendo's games nowadays, it's not surprising to see more of its teams getting involved. Still, it's always nice to know what first-party developers have been busy with outside of their own major releases. This could perhaps be another reason why Monolith has been upsizing so much in recent years. And for those wondering, the main developer working on Animal Crossing: New Horizons was Nintendo EPD.

What do you think Monolith might have helped out on? Leave a comment below.