History of PsyLabs Inc.
PsyLabs Inc. was a psychology focused research/marketing company established in 19831 by Dr. Allen Huber, a former member of the APA's Consumer Psychology Division. Originally known as PsyLabs Business Solutions, the company worked with clients to bring recognition to their brands and drive interest in their products using consumer psychology.
Not much of the early history of the company is documented.
You know what a lack of 'offical' info means! That's right kids, it's time for PlayLad's Conspiratorial Bullshit Corner! My sources (feel like a douche just typing that) had mostly good things to say. PsyLabs was professional, effective, and hard-working by all accounts. Someone claiming to have met Huber in person a few times told me frankly that he was "a real stuck-up asshole, but he almost had a right to be, they were that good at what they were doing." Doesn't surprise me. He knew so much about what made people tick, he could have used his big brain to really help people, but he just wanted to add some zeroes to the number in his bank account. Story of life. Fun to imagine him spinning in his grave about how hard his son ran his precious company into the dirt. I doubt he would even care about the kids.
Dr. Huber's son, Andrew Huber, became President of the company soon after graduating from college with degrees in business and psychology. With his father still acting as CEO, he established and developed two new branches of the company. PsyLabs Health was the first addition, an entirely new business dedicated to developing products and services to 'promote and increase mental wellness'. These mostly consisted of instructional and therapeutic video tapes and books with topics ranging from Feng Shui to the 5 stages of grief. Despite Dr. Huber's initial doubt, PsyLabs Health quickly became a valuable part of the company.
This led to the greenlighting of Andrew's next ambitious project, which would be a videogame software/hardware development sector he called PlayLab. PlayLab would still orient itself around promoting mental health, but now through a more child-centric lens. Through videogames, Andrew said, children could "...assess and express their emotional and mental states in an interactive and judgement-free setting".2
Soon after the creation of PlayLab, Dr. Huber Sr. was diagnosed with late stage colon cancer. He passed away in early 1996, leaving Andrew the CEO of what was by now known as PsyLabs Incorporated. He quickly filled key leadership positions within the company with his close friends.
By 1998, the PsyLabs Health and PlayLab teams had begun collaboration on a joint project.