HB Studios
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Company type | Game Developer |
---|---|
Industry | Interactive entertainment |
Founded | 2000 |
Headquarters | , Canada |
Key people | Jeremy Wellard, President, Craig Heffler, CFO, Alan Bunker, COO |
Products | see below |
Number of employees | 80+ |
Website | www.hb-studios.com |
HB Studios is a video game developer, founded in July 2000 by Jeremy Wellard, and located in Nova Scotia, Canada.
History
HB's headquarters are located in the small town of Lunenburg on the South Shore of Nova Scotia. The company started with nine developers working on Cricket 2002 for EA's Asia Pacific studio.[1] By 2003 and the concurrent development of Rugby 2004 and Cricket 2004 utilizing the Renderware engine HB had grown to 17. Also that year Jeremy Wellard won the Ernst & Young Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Atlantic Canada.[2]
In 2004 HB signed an exclusive multi-project deal with EA Canada to develop further sports games for the EA Sports label. By the end of 2004 the company had grown to 40 staff. 2005 brought with it a first sports title away from the Rugby and Cricket franchises - FIFA Street 2 on the PSP - which shipped in March 2006 and has subsequently sold over 880,000 units worldwide.[3] HB shipped four titles in 2006 including a co-development with EA Canada on Madden 07, a launch title in North America for the Nintendo Wii.
In the spring of 2007, after the exclusive deal with EA came to an end,[4] the company signed a deal with THQ to develop Big Beach Sports for the Wii. This was HB's first non-EA title and also their first game that wasn't a sports simulation. It sold more than 1.5 million units.[3] By May 2009 only 54 games had sold a million units or more on the Wii.[5] In the late summer of 2007 HB entered a period of deliberate rapid growth in order to be able to take on the extra projects on offer from various publishers. A new studio was opened in Halifax, Nova Scotia at the beginning of January 2008[6] while the HQ in Lunenburg also grew. From September to March 2008 the number of employees at HB Studios doubled from 65 to 130.
In 2009 HB Studios formed a new label, HB Arcade, for self publishing downloadable titles on WiiWare, PSN and Xbox Live Arcade. The first game to ship was HB Arcade Cards on WiiWare in the summer of 2009 with HB Arcade Disc Golf (WiiWare) and Jam Space (DSiWare) following in 2010.[7]
In August 2011 the company released their first self funded full console title - Rugby World Cup 2011 (video game) - on PS3 and Xbox 360 with 505 Games as the publisher.[8] It entered the UK charts at No.3.[9]
At the end of July 2012 HB Studios closed their satellite studio after 5 years of operation and focused all development at the Lunenburg HQ. The last games developed by the satellite studio were NBA Baller Beats for Kinect and Medal Bound on iOS.
In January 2014, it was announced that HB's The Golf Club for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC would be arriving in the Spring. [10] The game is a high quality golf sim boasting a powerful Course Creator based on the procedural generation of courses. The Course Creator can generate a brand new course in seconds which can be shared and played immediately online with friends and other gamers across PlayStation 4, XBox One and PC. There are also full editing capabilities for courses, Tournaments and Tours.
Games Developed
- 2001 Cricket 2002 - PS2, PC
- 2003 EA Sports Rugby 2004 - PS2, PC
- 2003 EA Sports Cricket 2004 - PS2, PC
- 2005 EA Sports Rugby 2005 - Xbox, PS2, PC
- 2005 EA Sports Cricket 2005 - Xbox, PS2, PC
- 2006 FIFA Street2 - PSP
- 2006 EA Sports Rugby 06 - Xbox, PS2, PC
- 2006 EA Sports Cricket 07 - PS2, PC
- 2006 EA Sports Madden 07 - Wii (co-developed with EA Canada)
- 2007 UEFA Champions League 2006-2007 - PS2, PSP, PC
- 2007 EA Sports Rugby 08 - PS2, PC
- 2007 EA Sports NBA Live 08 - PS2, PC
- 2007 EA Sports NHL 08 - PS2, PC
- 2008 UEFA Euro 2008 - PS2, PSP, PC
- 2008 Big Beach Sports - Wii
- 2008 EA Sports NBA Live 09 - Wii, PS2, PSP
- 2008 EA Sports NHL 09 - PS2, PC
- 2009 Rock Revolution - Wii
- 2009 Football Academy - DS
- 2009 EA Sports Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 - PSP, PS2
- 2009 HB Arcade Cards - WiiWare
- 2009 FIFA 10 - PC, PS2, PSP
- 2009 EA Sports NBA Live 10 - PSP
- 2010 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa - Wii, PSP
- 2010 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa - 360, PS3 (co-developed with EA Canada)
- 2010 FIFA 11 Ultimate Team - 360, PS3 (co-developed with EA Canada)
- 2010 Backyard Sports: Sandlot Sluggers - Wii, 360, PC
- 2010 FIFA 11 - PS2, PSP
- 2010 HB Arcade Disc Golf - WiiWare
- 2010 Backyard Sports: Rookie Rush - Wii, 360, PC
- 2010 HB Arcade Jam Space - DSiWare
- 2011 Rugby World Cup 2011 - PS3, 360
- 2011 EA Sports Madden NFL 12 - Wii, PSP, PS2
- 2011 HB Rugby : Fixture Challenge - iOS
- 2011 FIFA 12 - Wii
- 2012 Medal Bound - iOS, Android
- 2012 NBA Baller Beats - Kinect
- 2012 EA Sports Madden NFL 13 - Vita, Wii
- 2012 Maze Adventures - iPad
- 2013 Ace Geographer - iPad
- 2013 MLB.com Home Run Derby - iOS, Android
- 2013 MLB.com Franchise MVP - iOS, Android
Games Contributed To
- 2009 Guitar Hero 5 - Wii
- 2009 Guitar Hero: Van Halen - PS3, 360
- 2009 Need for Speed: Nitro - Wii
- 2010 EA Sports Madden NFL 11 - PS3, 360
- 2010 EA Sports NHL 11 - PS3, 360
- 2010 FIFA 11 - PS3, 360, PC
- 2011 EA Sports Madden NFL 12 - PS3, 360
- 2012 EA Sports Madden NFL 13 - PS3, 360, WiiU
- 2012 EA Sports Madden NFL 13 Social - iOS
- 2010-2012 Sony's Wonderbook platform - PS3
- 2013 EA Sports NCAA Football 14 - PS3, 360
- 2013 EA Sports Madden NFL 25 - PS3, 360, PS4, XBox One
- 2013 EA Sports Madden NFL 25 Mobile - iOS, Android
References
- ^ "ACOA Website - News - News Releases". Mediaroom.acoa-apeca.gc.ca. 2007-03-23. Retrieved 2011-10-19.
- ^ "Success Stories Archive". Immigratetoruralnovascotia.ca. Retrieved 2011-10-19.
- ^ a b "hb studios". hb studios. Retrieved 2011-10-19.
- ^ "ITNovaScotia.com - Where IT's at in Nova Scotia > News - East Coast video games firm expands beyond exclusive ties with industry giant". Web.archive.org. Archived from the original on 2008-03-04. Retrieved 2011-10-19.
- ^ Tom Ivan. "54 Wii Titles Now Million Sellers - Edge Magazine". Next-gen.biz. Retrieved 2011-10-19.
- ^ "About HB Studios". Retrieved 2009-01-06.
- ^ "HB Studios". HB Arcade. Retrieved 2011-10-19.
- ^ "Official Rugby World Cup 2011".
- ^ "GFK Chart-Track". Chart-track.co.uk. Retrieved 2011-10-19.
- ^ "The Golf Club".