Rebellion

Rebellion is a developer and publisher.

Rebellion Webpage, Facebook

Rebellion is an independent development studio based in Oxford. The company is known primarily for some of the games from the Aliens vs. Predator series and the Sniper Elite brand – in addition to its activities in the video game industry, it also operates as a books and comics publisher. Since 1991, Jason Kingsley has been the head of the studio, which employs nearly 200 people. As an independent producer, Rebellion also publishes some of its productions.

History of Rebellion

Rebellion was founded in 1991 by two brothers, Jason and Chris Kingsley. The studio quickly grew, acquiring talented artists (Stuart Wilson, Justin Rae) and programmers (Andrew Whittaker, Rob Dibley). Two years after starting their activity, the team delivered their first game – Eye of the Storm was released on Amiga and PC in 1993. It was then that the company began collaborating with Atari, which resulted in Checkered Flag, released exclusively for the Atari Jaguar console.

First hits and the beginning of publishing comic books

The first breakthrough in the team's history came in 1994, with the release of Aliens vs. Predator (also as a Jaguar exclusive). The game was a sales success and met with enthusiastic response from reviewers, which resulted in making a remastered version that debuted on PC in 1999.

It was then that the studio finally opened up to a wide range of platforms, resulting in Mission Impossible, a relatively successful action game developed for the Game Boy Color, and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six, developed for the first PlayStation. Interestingly, in 2000 the company acquired the rights to the comic book 2000 AD. Over the next three years, the team developed over a dozen productions, the most noteworthy of which is Delta Force: Urban Warfare from 2002 (released for PlayStation).

The year 2003 finally brought the premiere of the first game that drew heavily on the legacy of the 2000 AD series. That game was Judge Dredd: Dredd vs Death, released on PC, PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube. The title received mixed reviews from players and reviewers, which translated into moderate success. In 2004, a modernized version of Iron Storm was released – an original third-person shooter presenting an alternative version of World War I. The game, marketed as World War Zero: Iron Storm, was released on PC and PlayStation 2.

Sniper Elite and studio's expansion

A new chapter in the studio's history opened in 2005 with the release of Sniper Elite – a sniper simulator, which started a series that is still being developed today. The title debuted on PC and consoles, winning industry awards. That same year, the studio also released Delta Force: Black Hawk Dawn for PlayStation 2.

In 2006, the team grew significantly – this was the result of successful acquisitions, thanks to which the company acquired the rights to brands created by Elixir Studios (Republic: The Revolution, Evil Genius), and its ranks were joined by Core Design employees. Rebellion thus became the largest independent studio in Europe. That same year, the company also launched a publishing subsidiary, Abaddon Books, whose mission was to publish books and comics in the horror, fantasy, and science fiction genres. As for the productions created by the studio – in 2006 alone, the team delivered six games, among which the most notable are Rogue Trooper (an original hybrid of a third-person shooter and a stealth game, drawing heavily from another comic book series, 2000 AD), as well as Miami Vice: The Game, developed for the PlayStation Portable.

Here today, gone tomorrow...

The following years brought a number of smaller or larger successes – players liked Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem released in 2007 for PlayStation Portable, as well as The Simpsons Game for PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 2 and Nintendo Wii, which was released a year later. Unfortunately, Shellshock 2: Blood Trails was a financial flop, as was Rogue Warrior, released the same year.

Fortune smiled on Rebellion again just a year later with the release of another game set focused on Aliens vs. Predator. Although the title received moderately positive reviews from reviewers, its commercial results left little to be desired – in the UK it debuted at number one on the sales charts, thus becoming the fastest-selling game of 2010 in the UK and overtaking BioShock. Unfortunately, things later didn't quite go the way the developers had planned, and the bad luck was sealed by NeverDead, developed in collaboration with Konami and Shinta Nojiri, who had previously worked on the Metal Gear Solid games. The game was not a success.

Sniper Elite as a key title in the studio's portfolio

Another breakthrough came in 2012 with the release of Sniper Elite V2 – despite its flaws, gamers liked this third-person shooter. Encouraged by high sales, the developers completed work on the third part of the series after two years, and in 2017, fans received the fourth installment.

In the meantime, the Sniper Elite series has spawned a series of spin-offs featuring the living dead, which began in 2013 with Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army. Seven years later, when releasing the fourth game, the studio decided to remove the "Sniper Elite" and "Nazi" parts from its name, leaving only "Zombie Army".

In 2017, the studio gave players the remake of the cult Battlezone for virtual reality goggles, as well as the remastered version of Rogue Trooper, which was released on PC and consoles – PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. In 2018, we got a co-op shooter Strange Brigade, while in 2019 we got Sniper Elite V2 Remastered. Moreover, in 2018 and 2019, Rebellion acquired Radiant Worlds (renamed Rebellion Warwick) and TickTock Games (renamed Rebellion North after the change of ownership), as well as classic games from The Bitmap Brothers.

In 2021, Rebellion released Evil Genius 2: World Domination, in which gamers can become the titular evil genius, and also released Sniper Elite VR; Just Add Water Development's game was a spin-off of the studio's flagship series, designed for virtual reality. The year 2022 brought the release of Sniper Elite 5, with the action set in France, while in 2023 Rebellion released another spin-off of its flagship series - Sniper Elite VR: Winter Warrior.

Other projects

In 2024, Rebellion announced a first-person action survival game called Atomfall. The game had some similarities with the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series, mainly due to the fact that it took us to a radioactively contaminated zone in Great Britain, controlled by warring factions.

The premiere of Atomfall, scheduled for March 27, 2025, was preceded by Rebellion's another production. Sniper Elite: Resistance, the result of cooperation between Rebellion and Wushu Studios, was a spin-off of the sniper series, announced back in August 2024. The game was announced for PC and consoles, where it was supposed to arrive on January 30, 2025.

In the meantime, the studio has announced another project, a battle royale shooter codenamed Project Archipelago, developed in collaboration with the Level Infinite team. However, in November 2024, unofficial reports suggested that the project was canceled.

Meanwhile, Sniper Elite: Resistance debuted on time, but failed to repeat the success of its predecessors. The game received only "mixed" reviews on Steam, while its average rating from industry media on Metacritic was between 72-75/100. The main criticisms concerned primarily its similarity to the fifth installment, which led to terms like "Sniper Elite 5.1" appearing on Internet forums.

Another problem was that Sniper Elite: Resistance failed to attract large crowds; at its peak around launch on Steam, it had just over 7,600 concurrent players. It is worth noting, however, that the title debuted in the Game Pass subscription, which may have resulted in its lower popularity outside the Xbox "ecosystem".