The President of HB, Jeremy Wellard, sees this step as crucial to the strategic growth of the region’s largest game developer: “We are at capacity in our Lunenburg HQ so the creation of this new studio provides us the with the necessary space to take on further development opportunities and also gives us access to another recruitment option in the broader region.”

HB Studios Halifax will open on January 2nd with 20 staff and two projects in place. The HQ in Lunenburg is currently working on five projects across PS3, Wii, DS, PS2, PC and PSP with 85 staff.

HB Studios was established in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada at the beginning of July 2000 and has since shipped 13 titles with more than 70 SKUs. The latest game released was EA Sports NBA Live 08tm on PlayStation2 and PC in October 2007.

In Develop 100, an international ranking of the top 100 “World’s Most Successful Game Studios” according to product performance on the U.K. retail charts in 2006, HB Studios was ranked 26th; up from 32nd in 2005 and 46th in 2004.