How HAL’s name is connected to IBM
There is an amazing little video game fact buried in the ZombiU Iwata Asks that has gone unnoticed, for the most part.
Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata, formerly the president of HAL, revealed how the company was named after IBM. He said that “HAL was named as such because each letter put us one step ahead of IBM”.
Here’s the relevant blurb from the discussion:
Iwata:
I feel like we were thinking in just the same way, but in totally different countries. (Laughs) I also started from a very small software development company.
Yves:
We were inspired to aim big by the small yet dynamic world that was the early days of the gaming industry.
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)
