When it comes to eliteness, while I do love Monolithsoft... are they Nintendo's elite studio?
I'd say they're quite important at the least. They appeal to my demographic (RPG fans) and probably help keep me away from the competition... that's speaking for myself, I doubt most RPG fans would feel the same way.
The Xenoblade games are not directly important to Nintendo, more of a blip, really. However, Metroid Prime can be put in a similar boat... I think most people feel similar to me, "game is probably good for its fans, just not my type of game" - don't get me wrong, (as I've said) I really like the older Metroid games... again, a lot of that is nostalgia bias.
But the Xenoblade games and Monolithsoft are of key important for shaping some of Nintendo's key franchises, particularly the Legend of Zelda... which, XCX-style framework finally launched Zelda into stratospheric-level sales.
Monolithsoft also co-develop modern Zelda (since Skyward Sword and A Link Between Worlds), Animal Crossing (since New Leaf), Mario Kart, and Splatoon... all three of Nintendo's killer app franchises from last generation and another major franchise... and this generation, Mario Kart World is their main game on the Switch 2 so far.
Retro Studios? Not really sure their importance to Nintendo. They seem to be mostly used as a support team, and every decade or so they are made the head dev team on something, but when was the last time they did a game on their own? Have they ever done a game without requiring assistance?
But elite studio? For me, Nintendo's elite studio is EPD (formerly EAD).
The unfortunate truth is that both studios (Monolithsoft and Retro) are mainly support studios, not really elite. But at least Monolithsoft has its own franchise, creative drive, and well known veteran devs onboard who are even more famous in the English speaking world than those in the English language studio. So, if we're to say which studio is closer to elite status, I'd say Monolithsoft. Conceivably, they could have a game in 10 years that could break into the stratosphere, can the same be said of Retro?
I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.
