Talk:HAL Laboratory

List of Games as Separate article
Although the list of games gives a good idea of what games they've developed it says little about the company itself. It is also abotu 75% of the page length. I think it would be a good idea to split that into its own article. What do you think? Chipotlehero 19:34, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

First Party or Second Party?
The article says HAL is a first-party developer but the box at the bottom says they're a second-party --Headcase 15:14, 9 January 2006 (UTC)
 * IGN says it's a second-party developer. --Evice 21:16, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

It's confusing. Nintendo owns 50% of WARPSTAR inc which is the holding company for Hal Laboratory, so they are only partly owned by Nintendo. It seems similar to Nintendo's part ownership of Rare studios before Microsoft bought them out. http://www.hallab.co.jp/company_data_en.html —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.151.52.59 (talk) 05:43, 19 June 2008 (UTC)

Logo origin
Would be nice to have information on how their logo came to be a dog sheltering eggs.
 * There's a bit of info from a Nintendo Power interview here, though it's not really much (first question): http://www.nintendo.com/gamedev?gameid=m-Game-0000-1728 --GigaVolt 05:24, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

Commodore
Is this the same HAL Labs that developed games for Commodore? Mirror Vax 11:44, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

yup, added this info with reference Romanista 12:26, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

There are also HAL Labs games for the Apple II, most notably Taxman (a Pacman clone) Skylarkingnz 10:38, 27 May 2007 (UTC)

Fleshed out page with further Commodore information, including the "C64" carts that were really MAX Machine carts as opposed to C64-only carts. LocalH (talk) 22:41, 19 May 2012 (UTC)

Redundancy?
Is it me or does anyone else find the "games developed" section and the "list of games" section to be redundant? Likewise, the first reads like a trivia section, which is against WP:Trivia. I think it would be sufficient to just delete the "games developed" section as the "list of games" section seems to meet the purpose. Those who want to read about the games themselves can click on the article links. Drumpler 08:20, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Is HAL really developing this game? As far as I know, the developer has never actually been named. All we know is that Masahiro Sakurai is the director, and since he's working for his own company, Sora, it seems more likely that Sora is making Brawl. In any case, we can't say with any kind of certainty that HAL is making it. Zenintendofanatic 18:08, 10 October 2007 (UTC)
 * I deleted it from the list. And please guys, don't add it again unless some reliable source confirms HAL Lab. is developing Brawl.--R-RockMan.EXE (talk) 08:40, 25 November 2007 (UTC)

Furthermore, I deleted the claim that Hal being credited on the official site means that they're involved with production. It just means that HAL owns some of the characters and shares copyrights. 75.152.155.200 (talk) 05:32, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

HAL Laboratories is definitely NOT developing Brawl, but Game Arts is. Here is evidence: http://wii.ign.com/articles/846/846741p1.html Also, the Iwata Asks article (http://us.wii.com/iwata_asks/ssbb/vol1_page3.jsp) does not make any mention of HAL Laboratories as the developer, other than that the studio was too busy for the project. The game was developed by a combination of Nintendo employees and Game Arts employees, with HAL credited probably because of copyright issues. I will remove the game from the list now.--Coolbho3000 (talk) 23:12, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

There is also no reliable source right now saying that HAL is developing Smash for the Switch. I'm removing that as well. --Prince Ludwig (talk) 13:29, 9 March 2018 (UTC)

Logo
The HAL logo for little more than a decade now has confused many. A dog with eggs around it? Dogs are mammals and do not lay eggs; I figured some source wouldv'e turned up discussing the reason why HAL has this as their logo by now. • GunMetal Angel  08:16, 13 August 2010 (UTC)

Naming Contradiction?
The recent ZombiU Iwata Asks reveals a different origin of their name from the one listed in this article. It seems somewhat at odds with what Iwata has said before, so not sure what you Wikipedia folks want the article to say about it.

http://www.nintendo.co.uk/Iwata-asks/Iwata-asks-ZombiU/ZombiU/2-What-Is-And-What-Isn-t-Possible/2-What-Is-And-What-Isn-rsquo-t-Possible-676582.html

"Iwata: We were exactly the same in that sense. Ubisoft was named after Ubiquity because you wanted to be everywhere in the world and HAL was named as such because each letter put us one step ahead of IBM! (Laughs)" — Preceding unsigned comment added by Robin64 (talk • contribs) 10:47, 27 November 2012 (UTC)

HAL is not a Nintendo subsidiary
The Kotaku source for the claim that HAL is a Nintendo subsidiary is not good enough. It's a throwaway line in a throwaway news post. Nintendo is a publicly listed company, there are disclosures of their subsidiaries in their annual reports. I'm not familiar with Japanese disclosure requirements, but Western companies must disclose their main subsidiaries, although they do not have to exhaustively list every one.

None of Nintendo's reports mention HAL being a subsidiary. HAL do not mention being a Nintendo subsidiary. That they'd set up Warp Star together suggests that HAL and Nintendo are separate. - hahnch e n 16:45, 23 July 2013 (UTC)
 * You can contact HAL Laboratory at webmaster-at-hallab.co.jp to clarify their ownership status. You can email me and I can forward you their response.  HAL are an independent company.  The sources that claim it is a subsidiary are doing lazy non-research. - hahnch e n 19:51, 28 July 2013 (UTC)
 * You're free to contact them then. I don't want to lose too much time on this. -- Arkhandar ( Talk • Contribs ) 20:53, 28 July 2013 (UTC)
 * I already have. They have responded.  They are not a Nintendo subsidiary.  I was just confirming that aside from emailing them yourself, you could email me for their response. - hahnch e n 21:22, 28 July 2013 (UTC)
 * You can post it here, if you wish too, I'll assume good-faith.-- Arkhandar ( Talk • Contribs ) 22:18, 28 July 2013 (UTC)
 * Just heard back from Eiki Morimoto from Nintendo's investor relations - IR-at-nintendo.co.jp. Neither HAL, Creatures or Intelligent Systems are subsidiaries.  I only asked about those three companies, as they do not appear on Nintendo's annual report. - hahnch e n 21:04, 29 July 2013 (UTC)
 * Yes, they only work with close contact with Nintendo. Creatures Inc. is an affiliated company though.-- Arkhandar ( Talk • Contribs ) 21:39, 29 July 2013 (UTC)

Iwata was not the founder of HAL
It says he was, but Iwata got a part-time job there fresh out of college, according to his Wikipedia article. No citation here either; the line stating that he joined part-time out of college has two citations. Though, he did become its president at one point. HylianDev (talk) 19:23, 19 May 2017 (UTC)

HAL Labs vs HAL Laboratory
These are not the same company according to information I've seen. HAL Labs was Brian Fitzgerald's American company most known for Taxman. HAL Laboratory is the Japanese company featured here. The similar names and the fact that both actually made some similar games for the same systems is causing this confusion. Both probably took their names from the HAL computer. Currently "HAL Labs" redirects to this article... Someone should clear this up. 5.45.62.139 (talk) 20:21, 12 July 2017 (UTC)

Joust is missing (from the list, article, etc.)
Yes, a surprising footnote to history in some ways, but HAL actually made the Famicom version of Joust. This video briefly explains this had some special historical significance (in the preparation of the Famicom for the America market as the NES), and I have no reason to gainsay the claim: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJpeGLCipmE 18:27, 5 July 2023 (UTC) 2001:569:BEF5:1700:D073:1E67:869F:11B5 (talk) 18:27, 5 July 2023 (UTC)