Rebellion Buying Spree

By John Freeman on 13 March 2007

Hot on the heels of their purchase of comics-to-ipod publisher Clickwheel comes news that 2000AD owner Rebellion Studios has acquired Ignition’s Banbury development studio, formerly known as Awesome Developments and perhaps best known for developing the PSP puzzle game Archer Maclean’s Mercury, as well as its more recent sequel for the PlayStation 2, Mercury Meltdown Remix.

Clickwheel and Ignition aren’t their only purchases. Gamasutra reports that Rebellion also bought former Empire Interactive internal development studio Strangelite as well as former Tomb Raider developer Core Design.

Despite having access to 2000AD‘s characters the spin-off games, such as Rogue Trooper — have only had limited success, but the acquisition takes Rebellion’s staff levels to 280 full time members.

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John Freeman

John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.