Nova Scotia video game studio looks to make golf more accessible in ‘PGA Tour 2K25’

CITYnews halifax / By Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press

Golf is never far from Josh Muise’s mind, no matter the weather in Lunenburg, N.S.

Helping make the game a little easier was an objective for Muise, the senior creative director of HB Studios — the creative team behind the “PGA Tour 2K” video game franchise.

Gamers picking up the new version of the franchise, “PGA Tour 2K25,” benefit from that from the get-go.

“It’s something we take near and dear to the way we want to make games,” Muise said. “We fully understand the responsibility on our shoulders, of golf being a complex and difficult sport to master in real life. Historically we’ve taken that true simulation approach, which I think was reflected in a product that was maybe a little harder to pick up and play in the past.”

In developing the new title, Muise said the studio looked to add “a little bit more forgiveness” in game play to start while still offering everyone from newcomers to lapsed golf gamers the ability to improve and develop with the joystick.

“The pick up and play, finding fun right away, that’s really what we’re looking to do,” he said. “I I think it’s kind of the beauty of golf itself, where you can find those good moments and that gets you the bug and you want to keep coming back and doing it again.

“We’ve really made a big effort this year to work on accessibility and opening up especially that first five- to 10-hour experience with new players or any players really.”

The studio built a new difficulty system for the new game, replacing the lowest level of difficulty with what’s called the Perfect Swing, which helps the gamer get where they want to go.

“What we were looking to do with that difficulty setting was take a lot of the secondary inputs and nuance out of it and just really focus on moving the stick up and down to find a rewarding experience much more quickly and often for players,” Muise said. “And then that kind of sets them on the right path from the get-go.”

The new game features a revamped, more immersive career mode. Muise also points to improved graphics, refined physics and upgraded multiplayer experience.

Gamers can try their hand at three Majors — the 2025 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Club, 125th U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club and the 153rd Open at Royal Portrush Golf Club.

In all there are 27 licensed courses and events available at launch, including the WM Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale, AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am at Pebble Beach, and Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass.

Gamers can take control of 11 male and female pros at launch, including cover athletes Tiger Woods, Max Homa and Matt Fitzpatrick plus Canadian Brooke Henderson, Justin Thomas, Tony Finau, Lydia Ko and Tom Kim.

Founded in 2000 by transplanted Englishman Jeremy Wellard, HB Studios collaborated with various publishers including Electronic Arts on an array of sports games. The studio recruited locally and all over the globe to get expertise in everything from cricket and rugby to soccer, football and golf.

Muise, who was born on Cape Breton Island and spent a lot of his school years in New Brunswick, has been with the studio for some 18 years.

That first independent golf game was “The Golf Club,” released in 2014, which eventually became “The Golf Club 2019 featuring PGA Tour.”

In 2020, the studio released “PGA Tour 2K21” for 2K Games. A year later, 2K Games bought HB Studios and signed a deal with Woods. Today the PGA Tour 2K franchise is the studio’s main focus.

HB Studios currently has some 140 employees, either working remotely or out of Lunenburg. The talent pool includes everyone from a former assistant golf pro and handful of scratch golfers to an occasional mini-golfer.

“We’ve got this kind of unique collection of individuals who are able to kind or represent all sides of (the game) at least we hope,” said Muise.

His advice to newcomers to the game?

“Like golf itself, you can always start on the easiest setting and then build up over time,” he said. “I think sometimes there’s an instinct to jump ahead and dive into the deep end of games and really push the bar to the extremes of challenge right out of the gate.”

“We put a lot of time and consideration into our tutorials … We hope that the kind of guided path that we’re offering the players is the right first step. But if you want to get things a little bit spicy, by all means, we give you that option as well.”

“PGA Tour 2K25” is available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC via Steam.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 9, 2025.

Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press