HB Studios

HB Studios

Type	Game Developer
Industry	Interactive entertainment
Founded	2000
Headquarters	Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada
Key people	Alan Bunker, CEO, Craig Heffler, CFO
Products	see below
Number of employees	80+
Website	www.hb-studios.com

HB Studios is a Canadian video game developer founded in 2000 and located in Nova Scotia, Canada. They are best known for their rugby and cricket games, published by EA Sports.

History

HB Studios was founded in 2000 by Jeremy Wellard in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. The company started with nine employees, and developed Cricket 2002 for Electronic Arts' Asia Pacific studio.^[1]

In 2004, HB Studios entered a multi-project deal with EA Canada to continue developing sports games for the EA Sports label, including further games in the Rugby and Cricket series, FIFA Street 2 for the PlayStation Portable as well as co-development on Madden 07 for the Wii. This exclusivity deal ended in 2007,^[2] after which the company was hired by THQ to create Big Beach Sports for the Wii. This was HB Studios' first non-sports simulation game as well as the first game not developed for the EA Sports label.

In 2008, HB Studios opened a second studio in Halifax, Nova Scotia as well as now operating with 130 employees.^[3] The Halifax studio was closed at the end of July 2012 with all development moved to their headquarters in Lunenberg. The last games developed by the satellite studio were NBA Baller Beats for Kinect and Medal Bound on iOS.^[4]

A second label, HB Arcade, was formed in 2009, with the goal of self-publishing downloadable titles on WiiWare, PSN and Xbox Live Arcade. Games released under this label included HB Arcade Cards and HB Arcade Disc Golf, both for the WiiWare platform, as well as Jam Space for DSiWare.^[5]

In 2011, HB Studios developed Rugby World Cup 2011, a self-funded title published by 505 Games.^[6] It was well-received, and entered the UK charts at No.3.^[7]

In January 2014, it was announced that HB's The Golf Club for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC would be launching in the Spring of 2014.^[8] The game is a golf simulator that includes a Course Creator using procedural generation, allowing users to create, edit and share courses online. The game went to Steam Early Access in April 2014 and was fully released in August 2014.

In February 2015, HB Studios' founder, Jeremy Wellard, announced he was stepping down as President of the company with COO Alan Bunker announced as his replacement.^[9]

In March 2016, HB Studios and Maximum Games announced a joint venture to release Mark McMorris Infinite Air, an open-world, physics-based snowboarding video game that was built in partnership and close collaboration with multiple X-Games winner Mark McMorris. Infinite Air includes vast, customizable mountain ranges as well as a highly reactive, fluid control system. HB and Maximum have promised it to be the most authentic snowboarding game to date. It was released on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC in October 2016.^[10] The release of their VR title, The Golf Club VR was released in February 2017 to rave reviews. HB Studios also released their next golf title, The Golf Club 2, in June 2017.

In August 2018, 2K Sports took over the publishing of The Golf Club 2019 featuring the PGA Tour which was released digitally on August 28, 2018 with physical versions to be released in the fall of that year^[11]

Games developed

Games contributed to

• 2009 Guitar Hero 5 - Wii
• 2009 Guitar Hero Van Halen - PS3, 360
• 2009 Need for Speed Nitro - Wii
• 2010 Madden NFL 11 - PS3, 360
• 2010 NHL 11 - PS3, 360
• 2010 FIFA 11 - PS3, 360, PC
• 2011 Madden NFL 12 - PS3, 360
• 2012 Madden NFL 13 - PS3, 360, Wii U
• 2012 Madden NFL Social - iOS
• 2010-2012 Wonderbook - PS3
• 2013 NCAA Football 14 - PS3, 360
• 2013 Madden NFL 25 - PS3, 360, PS4, Xbox One, iOS, Android
• 2014 Madden NFL 15 - PS3, 360, PS4, Xbox One
• 2017 NBA Live 18 - PS4, Xbox One

References

External links

• Official website