HAL Laboratory is a Japanese game developer partnered with Nintendo. It was founded by a small group of friends who shared the desire to create games, and among said group was Satoru Iwata. The group developed games for numerous platforms at first before developing exclusively for Nintendo. The name HAL originates from the fictional computer HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey, as well as each letter being one letter before IBM. HAL Laboratory is most notable for developing the Kirby series created by ex-employee Masahiro Sakurai, they are also responsible for the Super Smash Bros. and the EarthBound series.

Formerly an employee of HAL Laboratory, Masahiro Sakurai left the company in 2003 and in 2005 with his wife Michiko Sakurai (also ex-HAL Laboratory), they founded Sora Ltd., a shell company that works on a freelance basis on several projects. He was also an author of a weekly column for Famitsu magazine from 2003 to 2021, and has done voice acting work in some of his games, most notably providing the voice of King Dedede in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards and the Super Smash Bros. series. Since 2022, Sakurai has been creating videos for his YouTube channel, Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games, where he discusses game design and his career.

Bandai Namco Studios is the internal video game developer within Bandai Namco Entertainment. In addition to their own original IPs, Bandai Namco Studios collaborates with Nintendo on games such as Super Smash Bros. and Pokémon. The company's core studio is in Japan with additional divisions in Malaysia and Singapore, as well as a division in Vancouver that closed in 2018.