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Post by Luke Groundwalker on Jun 26, 2011 15:51:15 GMT -5
This is something I've been thinking about lately and I was curious to what extent is HAL Laboratory owned by Nintendo?
Does it count as a second party? It seems nowadays it is, consistently having their games be published by Nintendo. Heck Vegas Stakes, a SNES game that was published by Nintendo and developed by HAL, isn't on the site either!
But back then this wasn't always the case. Other publishers published games for HAL. For example, HAL once made a game based off the Blade movies for the GBC (it's pretty damn good too).
However would their second party status kind of take in account all of their past work? I noticed on the site that it's missing stuff like the Eggerland series and the Revenge of the Gator (which has Nintendo cameos in it). While they did make games for other systems like the C64 and MSX, when the NES came around they became Nintendo-exclusive.
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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.
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Post by Luke Groundwalker on Jun 26, 2011 18:53:06 GMT -5
Wow that's really interesting, thank you for that. Still, do games like Revenge of the Gator count as Nintendo properties? That game is by HAL Laboratory iirc.
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Post by Fryguy64 on Jun 26, 2011 19:12:31 GMT -5
The Famicom Metal Slader Glory may have been credited to HAL rather than Nintendo, but (at least here in Europe) so were the Adventures of Lolo games on Virtual Console...
I suspect that HAL still has some stake in their older properties, but they aren't Nintendo games through association. Not that HAL isn't interesting in and of itself, and I'd be very interested if anyone made a HALdb ;D
Also, Vegas Stakes wasn't published by Nintendo in Japan... It was on the site at one point, as were all games published by Nintendo in particular regions, but I started scratching them off the site later. It gave the site a lack of focus.
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Post by Luke Groundwalker on Jun 26, 2011 20:35:08 GMT -5
Also, Vegas Stakes wasn't published by Nintendo in Japan... It was on the site at one point, as were all games published by Nintendo in particular regions, but I started scratching them off the site later. It gave the site a lack of focus. Interesting, I didn't know this. My main source of info here is mainly wikipedia and there seems to be a severe lack of information about HAL Labs projects. On the other hand, wouldn't something actually published by HAL Labs still be considered a Nintendo franchise?
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Post by Fryguy64 on Jun 27, 2011 3:14:12 GMT -5
HAL published a lot of rubbish back in the NES days. They certainly would count as general games on Nintendo systems, but really HAL doesn't get any special benefits over other developers in this regards I'm a strict mistress!
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Post by Koopaul on Jun 27, 2011 18:27:13 GMT -5
Yeah I had a discussion like this once. Like what if HAL was sold like Rare was, who would get what?
Nintendo would most likely keep Kirby.
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Post by nocturnal YL on Jun 27, 2011 22:56:06 GMT -5
Nintendo would most likely keep Kirby. And Satoru Iwata.
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Post by Fryguy64 on Jun 28, 2011 1:46:47 GMT -5
I like the idea that Nintendo gets to keep Iwata....
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Post by Manspeed on Jul 3, 2011 12:35:51 GMT -5
So when is Iwata's Dream Land coming out?
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Post by parrothead on Jul 4, 2011 0:56:45 GMT -5
When I was watching a subbed episode of Game Center CX, I saw a segment about someone in Japan who owns every Famicom cartridge in existence. The Famicom collector then showed the Famicom version of Metal Slader Glory and said by the time the game was released, the Super Famicom was already on the market and sales for the game were not enough to cover its advertising budget, which ended Hal Laboratory's business as an independent game publisher. It has since become a sought-after collector's item in the secondhand market due to its quality and its rarity.
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Post by 8bitretroshit on Jul 4, 2011 4:16:30 GMT -5
Where do you watch these subbed episodes? Ever since Kotaku's showing these English eps (available to US people only..) there's no trace of those subtitled videos on youtube anymore
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Post by eadninja on Feb 1, 2012 21:10:51 GMT -5
Vega Stakes was developed mainly by DICE. A Japanese developer now defunct. But DICE worked on a couple of sub-contracted games for HAL / Nintendo.
When people try to decipher companies involvement in Nintendo. It is much more complex than looking for shares of ownership.
Nintendo in Japan works with amalgamated contracts. Companies like SRD, Intelligent Systems and HAL Laboratory and presumably others work under this system. Does Nintendo own SRD or Intelligent Systems? Nope. But guess what? They are both R&D facilities located inside of NIntendo buildings. All their games are intertwined into an internal segment of the company. Their relationship is life long.
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