For a video game developer, publishing a popular comic book seems like a pretty good deal. You get invited to all the cool conventions, movies deals, and you don’t have to jump through much red tape when you want to put out a game based on your comic. As an added bonus, when your sniper shooter franchise starts taking up most of your time, you can still licence out your characters to other developers. That’s exactly when Rebellion hopes to do with its 2000AD comic.
Rebellion has been putting out both the comic, 2000AD, and games featuring those characters since the early 2000’s. Notably, these characters include Tharg the Mighty, Rogue Trooper, and, the most universally recognized of the lot, Judge Dredd. Rebellion has been pretty busy with its popular Sniper Elite franchise, and rightfully so. I have it on good authority that the most recent game in this franchise, Sniper Elite 4, is pretty darn good.
However, if the performance of 2012’s film Dredd and the public’s increasing demand for comic book properties, it seems like a game starring the titular judge doling out justice is practically necessary at this point. Furthermore, Rebellion hasn’t been able to put out anything more than a mobile title since the regrettable Rogue Trooper was ported to the Wii in 2009.
So far no one has stepped forward to publicly throw their hat in the arena for this licence, and I’m not terribly surprised. Many of these characters are not terribly well known outside of their fan bases, and those fans can get pretty rabid. Furthermore, even the imposing Judge Dredd has had difficulty in the past make the transition to video games, garnering mediocre reviews and sometimes being thought of as cult classics at best. Despite these hurdles, I’m sure that there will be some brave developer to take the reins and bring out something worthwhile, the question is who.
