HAL Laboratory

Founded 1980 · Tokyo, Japan · Founders: Mitsuhiro Ikeda · First game: Computer software and peripherals (early 1980s)

A Tokyo studio that began by making computer peripherals, nearly went bankrupt in the early 1990s, and was saved by Nintendo on condition that a young programmer named Satoru Iwata ran it. Its next game was Kirby's Dream Land.

HAL Laboratory was founded on 21 February 1980 in Kanda, Tokyo, with Mitsuhiro Ikeda as its first president. Its early business was hardware and utilities — the company made peripherals including a universal remote and cables for electronic organisers — before it turned increasingly to games. The origin of its name is told two ways: Satoru Iwata said in 2005 that it came from the computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey, and in 2012 that each letter put the company "one step ahead of IBM". Iwata, a gifted programmer, became central to HAL's game work on Nintendo's systems. By the early 1990s, however, the company was in serious trouble. The protracted development of the Famicom adventure game Metal Slader Glory contributed to debts of about ¥1.5 billion, and HAL was on the verge of bankruptcy. Nintendo agreed to rescue it on the condition that Iwata be appointed president. His first release in that role, in 1992, was Kirby's Dream Land for the Game Boy, designed by Masahiro Sakurai. Kirby became HAL's signature series, and the studio went on to co-develop the Mother games and to create Super Smash Bros., first released in 1999. Iwata himself joined Nintendo in 2000 and became its president in 2002. HAL remains an independent company closely tied to Nintendo, with offices in Tokyo and Yamanashi.