HB Studios

HB Studios is a video game development company, founded in July 2000 by Jeremy Wellard, a developer from the UK who formerly worked for Audiogenic and Codemasters.

History
HB's headquarters are located in the small town of Lunenburg on the South Shore of Nova Scotia. The company started with 9 developers working on Cricket 2002 for EA's Asia Pacific studio. 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.

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. HB shipped 4 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, 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. In 2009 HB Studios ranked 48th on Develop 100. By May 2009 only 54 games had sold a million units or more on the Wii. 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 whilst 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 and WiiWare) on the way soon.

As of July 2010 there were 110 staff in total between the two studios. That same month it was announced by Melanie Williams, director of operations, that Halifax would close in September 2010, due to "the economic climate", and the majority of the staff would be invited to move to the Lunenburg studio where possible.

Games
With the release of Backyard Sports: Sandlot Sluggers in May 2010 HB Studios has shipped 26 Titles with 190 SKUs selling more than 13.5 million units.


 * 2001 EA Sports 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 Rock Revolution - DS
 * 2008 EA Sports NBA Live 09 - Wii, PS2, PSP
 * 2008 EA Sports NHL 09 - PS2, PC
 * 2009 Rock Revolution - Wii
 * 2009 EA Sports 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 Ultimate Team 2 - 360, PS3 (co-developed with EA Canada)
 * 2010 Backyard Sports: Sandlot Sluggers - Wii, 360

HB Studios has also announced a Rugby 2012 game. In July 2010 Atari announced the HB developed Backyard Sports: Rookie Rush for release in October 2010.