2K announced today the acquisition of HB Studios, the producers of PGA Tour 2k21 developer along with a long-term exclusive partnership with Tiger Woods.
GamesIndustry.biz talked with 2K’s President David Ismailer who affirmed that the publisher has seen profits with HB Studios which has shipped nearly 2 million units for PGA Tour 2K21 since its launch.
“We have an incredible foundation to build on, and acquiring HB gives us the opportunity to optimize our relationship with them between a publisher and a developer into our independent studio structure,” Ismailer says.”But it also lets us invest more into their resources by building out more resources in Canada and the United States. And that lets us build more engaging features for the game as we think about the future.”
Tiger Woods is an 11-time PGA Tour Player of the Year, he has signed a contract with 2k giving the company the right to use his name and likeness in video games related to 2K Sports. Woods will also be involved in the development of future games as he will serve as an Executive Director acting as a consultant for the studio.
“There aren’t that many icons in the industry other than Tiger Woods,” Ismailer explains why asked why the publisher pursued Woods above the beyond the PGA Tour license. “And the way I view building sports franchises, it takes quite a while to build into the franchise. So we thought it was the right way to partner with Tiger. Ismailer also adds “We view his ability to help us into the next set of iterations of these games over a long-term basis. We’ve done similar partnerships like this with players like Michael Jordan and others in the industry, specifically in basketball, around long-term partnerships for their support in growing our franchises.”
Acquiring HB Studios, 2K secures a experienced developer known for producing sports games for all platforms. HB’s first game was Cricket 2002 for EA Sports, in the last twenty years they have produces several games for the largest sports franchises, working on FIFA, Madden NFL, and Tiger Woods PGA Tour.
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