HAL Laboratory, Inc.,[b] formerly shortened as HALKEN (derived from its native name), is a Japanese video game developer founded on 21 February 1980. While independent, it has been closely tied with Nintendo throughout its history, and is often referred to as a second-party developer for the company.[4] HAL Laboratory is headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and it also has a building at Kai, Yamanashi.[5] The company got its name because "each letter put them one step ahead of IBM".[6] The company is most famous for their work on the Kirby and Mother series, Pokémon Snap, and the first two Super Smash Bros. games.
The logo, dubbed Inutamago,[c] depicts a dog incubating eggs, which has been in use since 1998.
HAL Laboratory started off making games for the MSX system and VIC-20.[7] After financial strain brought on from the development of Metal Slader Glory (1991) for the Famicom,[8] Nintendo offered to rescue HAL from bankruptcy on the condition that HAL employee Satoru Iwata was appointed as its president, which he became between 1993 and 2000.[9] Iwata later became president of Nintendo.
The logo 'Inutamago' was commissioned in 1998 by then HAL Laboratory president, Satoru Iwata. This was handled by Shigesato Itoi who went through many different ideas. He went with the theme of 'an unexpected bond...one that brings the birth of something new' which would lead to the idea of a dog incubating eggs in a nest. The actual design was created by Mr. Akiyama of HAL. The design was indoctrinated by HAL Laboratory in 1998, although the reception at first was lukewarm.[10]
In many of its games during the early to mid-1990s, it used the name HALKEN, derived from their Japanese name. Some of its early titles were also released as HAL America Inc. (HAI), a North American subsidiary of the company led by Yash Terakura and based in Beaverton, Oregon, USA.[11]
In August 2001, HAL Laboratory and Nintendo established Warpstar, Inc. in a joint venture (where each part owns 50% of the company) with the objective to manage the Kirby IP along with its copyright, which the decision for the creation of the company was mainly for Kirby: Right Back at Ya! anime series. After the end of the anime, the company still exists and now works with license and supervision of the characters in games, merchandise and other media.[5][12]
For years, the company's development center at Tokyo was located within the eighth floor of the Nintendo Tokyo Prefecture Building which itself is located Nihombashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo, but in August 2003, the company announced that a restructuration was happening and that the development center at the building would be relocated to HAL's main office building in Kanda Suda-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo. While this change happened on the Tokyo-based company, the Yamanashi part of HAL was unaffected by the changes of the company.[13]
In 2017, HAL Laboratory announced that they would develop and self-publish games for mobile devices with the brand HAL Egg and focusing on completely new characters and franchises, with different types of design than what the developers of the company usually do. The first title launched by them was Part Time UFO.[14] The company released a miniature version of the MZ-80C computer in October 2017[15] and a miniature version of the PC-8001 in October 2019[16]
In 2020, HAL Laboratory updated their employee numbers from 169 to 195 and the company came back to the new Nintendo Tokyo Building with its main office and the Tokyo development studio being in the same building along with Nintendo EPD Tokyo, Nintendo PTD Tokyo, 1-Up Studio and Game Freak like a keiretsu.[17] The studio in Yamanashi was unaffected by that move.
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