I can't see any game beating The Wonderful 101 for awesomeness this gen. It's going to take something REALLY special to take the crown from The Wonderful 101. Best game I've played in around 30 years.
Wouldn't bother me if turned out to be an online game since the crappy mmo combat and quests would actually make sense. It's not like were getting DQX[in the US], PSO2, or FFXIV anyway so if Nintendo has to do it themselves so be it.
Didn't Xenoblade start development early 2007, just before Nintendo bought them? Putting Xenoblades development at around 3 1/2 years, or just under 3 if you discount the half a year or so of debugging.
Certainly 2007, Takahashi came up with the world while working on Soma Bringer which came out in early 2008, though I don't think it was ever stated when in 2007 they started.
I will be very disappointed if the single player story that is the big, big plus of Takahashi's games is compromised for what would effectively be Monster Hunter Online - Mech Edition. By all means, stick it on as an extra for post-game or whatever, but give me the single player story and characters that are the hallmark of the Xeno family.
I kind of wish it had no online at all. Xenoblade was incredible and reminded me of the golden age of RPG's. The game didn't need online. I love just being immersed in a single player storyline. I hope if it's done, it's done well and doesn't detract from the storyline. I trust Monolith.
They've had some "urgent" job postings for quite a while now, nothing really new here. I think the urgent part means : we need you NOW, not in a months or two.