HB Studios was established in Nova Scotia, Canada at the beginning of July 2000 by Jeremy Wellard, an experienced Designer and Producer from the UK. Jeremy left Codemasters in the summer of 1999 and moved to Canada where he continued to work on a consultancy basis for the British publisher until he formed HB.
HB was formed around a publishing deal with Electronic Arts' Australian studio for Cricket 2002. With a crew of 9 dev staff HB built the game on original tech and it was released in December 2001 on PlayStation2. It reached the top of the charts in the southern hemisphere at Christmas and No.4 on the UK charts in February of 2002. The PC version was released in the spring. A deal was then signed for another cricket game and an all new Rugby title to be timed for the 2003 Rugby World Cup - Cricket 2004 and Rugby 2004.
At the end of 2003 EA signed HB to an exclusive multi-project deal and switched the management of HB projects to EA Canada. Under this deal Rugby 2005 (console), Cricket 2005 (console), Rugby 2006 (console) and FIFA Street2 (PSP) were developed and published. At the beginning of 2006, as the deal became non-exclusive., EA and HB agreed to work on 3 new projects for console - UEFA Champions League 2, Rugby 2007 and Cricket 2007. HB's staff currently numbers 60.
