Post by nocturnal YL on Jun 26, 2011 16:47:41 GMT -5
In short, as early as HAL Laboratory sold games on Famicom, they were getting financial support from Nintendo. But the change to being mainly a developer for Nintendo started when they used to be in a financial crisis after HAL Laboratory and HAL Corporation split apart. HAL Laboratory failed to sell games and failed in their investment in real estate in Yamanashi, leading them to liquidate. At this time, Nintendo offered to give support, with Yamauchi giving an additional condition that Satoru Iwata (who was with HAL from the very start, in fact, he was one of the few people that directly led to the establishment of HAL) had to be made president. The actual work done to save HAL (besides financially)? Nintendo helped them a great deal in making Kirby's Dream Land 1.
Since then, HAL Laboratory dedicated into making games that they targeted at being million sellers. This target was soon met with Kirby's Adventures. By the Nintendo 64 days, all of their games were made for Nintendo, with the sole exception of the Wii VC version of Metal Slader Glory (the Famicom one, not the SFC remake), which listed HAL Laboratory as publisher. Other VC ports of HAL games were published by Nintendo, although HAL remains the sole copyright owner.
HAL Corporation, on the other hand, worked on several PC games like the Windows version of Eggerland. They were eventually closed in 2002. This part of HAL has nothing to do with Nintendo.
Source: Wikipedia page (JP)
As for their relationship with Nintendo now, it's pretty much like INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS now. Financially independent from Nntendo, but works for Nintendo in both hardware and software. Although in terms of style, they're pretty much the polar opposite to INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS.
Since then, HAL Laboratory dedicated into making games that they targeted at being million sellers. This target was soon met with Kirby's Adventures. By the Nintendo 64 days, all of their games were made for Nintendo, with the sole exception of the Wii VC version of Metal Slader Glory (the Famicom one, not the SFC remake), which listed HAL Laboratory as publisher. Other VC ports of HAL games were published by Nintendo, although HAL remains the sole copyright owner.
HAL Corporation, on the other hand, worked on several PC games like the Windows version of Eggerland. They were eventually closed in 2002. This part of HAL has nothing to do with Nintendo.
Source: Wikipedia page (JP)
As for their relationship with Nintendo now, it's pretty much like INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS now. Financially independent from Nntendo, but works for Nintendo in both hardware and software. Although in terms of style, they're pretty much the polar opposite to INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS.