Rebellion Acquires Ignition's Mercury Dev

UK-headquartered developer Rebellion Studios (Sniper Elite, Judge Dredd: Dredd vs. Death) has announced that it has acquired Ignition's Banbury development studio, formerly known as Awesome Developments. The studio is 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. Another title from the series, Mercury Meltdown Revolution was also recently announced for the Nintendo Wii, though it remains uncertain if this acquisition will have any impact on the future of that project. The purchase of Ignition's studio follows Rebellion’s recent acquisition former Empire Interactive internal development studio Strangelite as well as former Tomb Raider developer Core Design. Rebellion is also well known in the UK as the owners of prominent British comic book 2000 AD and all related characters. However, the company’s attempts to bring properties such as Judge Dredd and Rogue Trooper to the video games market have so far met with relatively limited success. Rebellion's CEO and Creative Director Jason Kingsley commented: "This acquisition takes the Rebellion headcount to 280 full time members of staff. We're fully booked with work until later in the year so these additional highly talented staff will be a valuable addition to the team."