Rebellion Developments

Rebellion was founded on 4 December 1992 by brothers Jason and Chris Kingsley in Oxford, England.[1][2] The pair had just finished academic degrees at the University of Oxford, and had ambitions of starting doctorates.[2] In their spare time, they did freelance work in the games industry.[2] When their freelance jobs roles began to expand and they were taking on more management responsibilities, they decided to establish Rebellion in Oxford.[2] The foundation of the studio was laid when the brothers secured a deal with video game publisher Atari UK.[2] They presented a 3D dragon flight game demo to directors at the publisher, who were seeking games for the upcoming Atari Jaguar system.[2] They were commissioned by Atari to work on two titles for the Jaguar, Checkered Flag and Alien vs Predator, which both released in 1994.[2] The development team was expanded to assist with work on these games. It included artists Stuart Wilson, Toby Banfield, and Justin Rae and programmers Mike Beaton, Rob Dibley, and Andrew Whittaker.[3] Following Alien vs Predator, Rebellion saw no releases for some years, with their next project, the intentionally light-hearted PC game Mr. Tank,[4] going unpublished.

In June 2000, they bought the 2000 AD comic series from Fleetway Publications,[5] and have since developed several characters from the comic for the games market. The first commercial release, Judge Dredd: Dredd Vs. Death was mildly successful. A second game was released in 2006 based on Rogue Trooper. Its 2005 game Sniper Elite was awarded "Best PC/Console Game" in the TIGA Awards of 2005.[6]

In 2004, Rebellion entered a deal with DC Comics to reprint several 2000 AD stories in trade paperback form, including Judge Dredd, Strontium Dog, Nikolai Dante, and Sinister Dexter. When DC left the venture, citing poor sales, Rebellion created its own line of American graphic novels, distributed through Simon & Schuster. In 2005 Rebellion also created the Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files series, which has begun reprinting almost every appearance of Judge Dredd in chronological order.

In 2006, following the demise of Elixir Studios, Rebellion purchased all IP related to the studio, including Evil Genius and Republic: The Revolution.[7] Later, in 2009, Jason Kingsley confirmed rights ownership of former Vivendi Games franchises sold before merging with Activision in 2008, as well as the intention of making new sequels of those and Elixir Studios games.[8]

In 2006, Rebellion purchased Tomb Raider developers Core Design from Eidos Interactive, as well as Strangelite from Empire Interactive, making the company the largest independent European development studio. Rebellion launched their novel imprint Abaddon Books. Rebellion was awarded the Develop Industry Excellence Award 2006 for Most Improved Studio.[9]

In August 2008, Blackfish Publishing, publisher of Death Ray magazine, was bought by Rebellion.[10] In September 2008, Rebellion acquired Mongoose Publishing, who had previously published games like The Judge Dredd Roleplaying Game.[11]

In 2009, Rebellion's Rogue Warrior game received poor reviews but notable titles have included Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron for the PlayStation Portable. In 2010, they developed the latest Aliens vs. Predator game, published by Sega, which received a mixed critical reception, but debuted at number one on the UK all formats chart.[12] As of June 2011, it is the fastest-selling game of 2010 in the UK, a record previously held by BioShock 2;[13] it was also the best-selling game on Steam, as well as on the retail PC charts.[14] Along with developing the title's characters for video games, Rebellion continues to publish 2000 AD as well as its sister title the Judge Dredd Megazine.

In June 2009, Rebellion acquired the role-playing and board games publisher Cubicle 7.[15] Cubicle 7, through chief executive officer Dominic McDowall, performed a management buyout from Rebellion in December 2014.[16] In September 2009, Rebellion acquired Solaris Books from Games Workshop.[17]

Two games from Rebellion released in 2012: NeverDead, published by Konami and directed by Shinta Nojiri (who was involved in the development of the Metal Gear Solid series of games), and Sniper Elite V2, which is being co-published with 505 Games. In July 2013, Rebellion bought the Battlezone and the Moonbase Commander franchises from the Atari bankruptcy proceedings.[18]

In 2014, a sequel to Sniper Elite V2, Sniper Elite III was released.

In September 2015, the Sniper Elite series had passed 10 million copies sold worldwide.[19]

In August 2016, Rebellion acquired the post-1970 IPC Youth and Fleetway comics libraries from Egmont.[20][21] It is reprinting these under its Treasury of British Comics imprint, including Roy of the Rovers, Wildcat and One-Eyed Jack.

In January 2018, Rebellion acquired Warwick-based Radiant Worlds for an undisclosed sum. Radiant Worlds was rebranded Rebellion Warwick.[22] With the acquisition, Rebellion's staff count rose to 300 people.[22]

In September 2018, Rebellion acquired TI Media's library of pre-1970 IPC Comics titles.[23]

In November 2018, Rebellion set up a studio for film and TV series based on 2000 AD characters, the first projects being Judge Dredd: Mega-City One and Rogue Trooper, both directed by Duncan Jones.[24] Rebellion Productions, the film production arm founded in 2017, would occupy a disused newspaper factory in Didcot, England.[25]

In January 2019, Rebellion acquired Wakefield-based TickTock Games, which had previously worked with Rebellion on several games, for an undisclosed sum. TickTock Games was rebranded Rebellion North.[26]

Rebellion acquired the rights to The Bitmap Brothers games in November 2019.[27]

• Evil Genius (2009, PC). Originally developed by Elixir Studios and published in 2004.
• Republic: The Revolution (2009, PC). Originally developed by Elixir Studios and published in 2003.
• Empire Earth (2009, PC). Originally developed by Stainless Steel Studios and published in 2001. The expansion pack was released in 2002.
• Ground Control (2009, PC). Originally developed by Massive Entertainment and published in 2000.
• Ground Control II: Operation Exodus (2009, PC). Originally developed by Massive Entertainment and published in 2004.
• Lords of the Realm (2009, PC). Originally developed by Impressions Games and published in 1994. This includes Lords of the Realm II published in 1996.
• Lords of the Realm III (2009, PC). Originally developed by Impressions Games and published in 2004.
• Lords of Magic (2009, PC). Originally developed by Impressions Games and published in 1998.
• Woolfe: The Red Hood Diaries (2015, PC). Originally developed by GriN Gamestudio and published in 2015.
• Battlezone 98 Redux (2016, PC). Developed by Big Boat Interactive.
• Battlezone: Combat Commander (2018, PC). Developed by Big Boat Interactive.

• Official website
• Rebellion Developments' profile at MobyGames