Rebellion Developments

Rebellion is a British video game company based in Oxford, known known the Aliens vs. Predator and Sniper Elite game series. It has published comic books since 2000 and launched its own book imprint, Abaddon Books, in 2006.

History
Rebellion was established by brothers Jason and Chris Kingsley in 1992. Their first known title was Alien Vs. Predator for the Atari Jaguar, which was considered one of the best games for that console.

In June 2000, they bought the comic 2000 AD from Fleetway, 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.

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. 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. Later, in 2009, Jason Kingsley confirmed rights ownership of former Vivendi franchises sold before merging with Activision in 2008, as well as the intention of making new sequels of those and Elixir Studios games.

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 and made a number of publishing purchases. These included buying Clickwheel, which was used to digitally published 2000 AD, with archives and an online iPhone comic reading application launched later. Rebellion was awarded the Develop Industry Excellence Award 2006 for Most Improved Studio.

In August 2008, Blackfish Publishing, publisher of Death Ray magazine, announced it had been bought by Rebellion. In September 2008, Rebellion acquired Mongoose Publishing, who had previously published games like The Judge Dredd Role-Playing Game.

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 generally favourable a mixed critical reception, but debuted at number one on the UK all formats chart. As of June 2011, it is the fastest-selling game of 2010 in the UK, a record previously held by BioShock 2; it was also the best-selling game on Steam, as well as on the retail PC charts. 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, it was announced that Rebellion had acquired the role-playing and board games publisher Cubicle 7. In September 2009, Rebellion acquired Solaris Books from Games Workshop.

Two games from Rebellion are being 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.

Active

 * Rebellion Oxford
 * Rebellion Liverpool

Defunct

 * Rebellion Derby

Rebellion group of companies

 * Rebellion Developments (video game developer)
 * Fearnort Production (film production company)
 * 2000 AD (comic and trade paperback publishing company)
 * Abaddon Books (horror, science fiction and fantasy book publishing company)
 * Clickwheel (digital publishing company)
 * Mongoose Publishing (role-playing, card games and miniature wargaming publishing company)
 * Cubicle 7 (role-playing, card and board games publishing company)
 * Solaris Books (science fiction and fantas] book publishing company)

List of games republished by Rebellion
These games were originally developed and published by other companies, but were subsequently acquired and republished by Rebellion:


 * 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: Gold Edition (2009, PC). Originally developed by Stainless Steel Studios and published in 2001. The expansion pack was released in 2002.
 * Ground Control + Expansion (2009, PC). Originally developed by Massive Entertainment and published in 2000.
 * Ground Control II: Operation Exodus SE (2009, PC). Originally developed by Massive Entertainment and published in 2004.
 * Lords of the Realm: Royal Edition (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: Special Edition (2009, PC). Originally developed by Impressions Games and published in 1998.