S'il est vrai qu'HAL Laboratory travaille avec Nintendo et produit notamment la licence Kirby (et fut un temps Super Smash Bros), il est moins reconnu le fait qu'en vrai Hal Laboratory est un studio second party, indépendant de la structure de Nintendo.
Le CEO de Hal Laboratory, Masayoshi Tanimura, a accordé une interview à The Worldfolio, le chef du studio revient sur leur relation avec Nintendo : Les débuts du studio, puis le partenariat avec la firme.
Q : Since the 1980’s, you have closely collaborated with Nintendo, being one of the most famous and recognized game conceivers across decades of different gaming consoles. How would you describe your long-lasting relationship with Nintendo?
Tanimura : Before HAL Laboratory was founded, one of the first personal computers created, the Commodore 2001, was being sold at a store in Japan. In that store, several college students, who would eventually become part of HAL Laboratory, used to hang out and spend their time. These students were tech savvies, always curious to know how this kind of machinery functioned.
At a time where there was no disclosure about internal contents or know-how, they were able to hack the computer and figure out its internal system. This tech-savvy crew set up HAL Laboratory. From the start, we had a group of people who were technically capable and who understood internal computer mechanics. Luckily, the CPU used for the Commodore 2001 was similar to the one used for the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System), which opened the door to our partnership with Nintendo. This anecdote goes to show that our collaboration with Nintendo is something historical, and over the years, we have established a mutual relationship of trust based on collaboration.
However, I want to make clear that HAL Laboratory and Nintendo are two different companies. Our customers are often confused as to our relationship, and tend to wrongfully assume HAL Laboratory to be a part of Nintendo. HAL Laboratory is a secular and independent company, both in terms of management and corporate culture.
Hal Laboratory est donc très connu pour Kirby, leur travail avec Nintendo notamment sur le hardware et dont 2 de ses personnalité sont très connu à savoir Sakurai (créateur de Kirby et de Super Smash Bros) et Iwata (ancien PDG de Nintendo, décédé), mais du temps de la NES et SNES ils ont produit des jeux non-édités par la firme comme Eggerland (Adventure of Lolo), Gall Force, Metal Slader Glory, le second Ghost Busters sur GameBoy, Arcana ou encore Hyper Zone.
Hal Laboratory est une structure qui a de l'ambition. Dernièrement, ils ont lancé un restaurent éphémère, le Kirby Café. Plus anciennement, avec leur filiale Warpstar ils ont produit la série animé Kirby, et avait même leur propre filiale US de localisation de jeux, HAL America.
Site web de HAL Laboratory : http://www.hallab.co.jp
Retrouvez l'interview intégrale en source, où Tanimura répond à un certain nombre de points sur le jeu vidéo.