Monolith did work on the game design for BotW, so it's not really the same thing. They were certainly more involved with BotW than TOSE was on Splatoon 2.
That is all I was saying, I understand what Monolith did in Zelda just pointing out they worked on the game just like TOSE had a hand in Splatoon 2 but those titles are not claimed to be Monolith Soft or TOSE games. Just working on some parts does not mean the team claims the whole project. It is not the same as a developer that ports a whole title from start to finish. And yeah agreed Monolith did a lot more work on Zelda than what access TOSE had for Splatoon. MSoft has been taking part in Zelda for a while don't they show up in the credits for Twilight Princess?
They don't do just ports. They also do art outsourcing. I just meant to give an example of Nintendo not doing everything in-house and this is a recent one.
Regarding holding this project under wraps, I don't know. Whoever is behind this game probably has a reason for it. I don't think it matters much who the publisher is. What matters more is when the targeted release deadline is.
I did not say TOSE does only ports I said they do grunt work. This is nothing new for Nintendo to work with TOSE, but grunt work is not a port. The thread is about a developer working on an AAA port for Switch. You said it might not be a 3rd party but Nintendo. I am just saying this is not how Nintendo supports a collaboration. A Port is a complete game code being reworked to fit a targeted platform it is closer to creating a full game more than it is helping out with code and art assets as TOSE does often for Nintendo. Virtuos working directly for Nintendo is just less likely from the hints we have so far.
We all know how secretive Nintendo can be but they are never super secretive about ports, Sometimes ports do come out of left field like Twilight Princess HD but still when they show up they are often connected to another game or new amiibo. My point is if Nintendo was working with Virtuos I think they would have featured whatever title this is on a Nintendo Direct they would not hide it. This is a 3rd party who likes things quiet and can drop the port at anytime if things are going badly.
We only have SMASH and Mario Maker missing from porting to Switch. What would you think Virtuos would work on for Nintendo? Xenoblade X?
If these guys are working on SMASH this would be a major downgrade from Sakurai working with Bandai Namco who did pretty much all of SMASH 4 not Nintendo's internal teams. So even if Sakurai steps away from directing a port someone at Namco side would have stepped up.
If Pokken did not get kicked out of Bandai Namco (was it?) to be ported, SMASH 4 which has a higher profile history is not going to be handed over to a western dev like Virtuos without some major leaks even if Nintendo did not want to feature this team.
If you are right, I could only see Xenoblade X being thrown out like this since they have allowed a super weak 3DS port of a past Xenoblade title, I can see that being a possibility, since Monolith Soft is busy.
I just feel a Nintendo Title by this team is a long shot.
edit: And if these guys are porting Bayonetta 1 & 2 I would be SUPER PISSED!
