The makers of Sniper Elite now own Speedball, Xenon, and The Chaos Engine and they’re planning to make new sequels and remasters.
Back in the late 80s and early 90s The Bitmap Brothers were the most famous video game developers in the UK.
With games like Xenon, Speedball, Gods, and The Chaos Engine they not only made great games but titles that were instantly identifiable as their own, with a distinctive art style no matter what the genre.
Described even at the time as ‘gaming’s first rockstars’ they failed to successfully make the leap into the CD era of modern gaming but never actually shut down and have still continued to licence their old titles on mobiles and other formats.
None of that seemed to make much of an impact though and so now UK publisher and developer Rebellion has announced they’ve bought the brand and the whole Bitmap back catalogue.
Their plans for The Bitmap Brothers are purposefully vague, but Rebellion intends to bring classic games to new platformers (i.e. remasters) and create new titles based on existing games.
The photo below pictures Rebellion founders Jason and Chris Kingsley along with The Bitmap Brothers co-founder Mike Montgomery, in an image purposefully reminiscent of the sort that originally made them famous in video game mags in the early 90s.
‘We’re delighted with the addition of The Bitmap Brothers to the ever-growing Rebellion portfolio,’ said Rebellion CEO and co-founder Jason Kingsley OBE.
‘The Bitmap Brothers are renowned for making great games and for bringing gaming into the mainstream with inimitable style’, said Jason Kingsley OBE. ‘We’ve known Mike Montgomery for many years, and we’re honoured by the faith and trust that he has shown in us by passing on the torch. We’ll strive to be vigilant custodians of one of gaming’s great names.’
What role, if any, Montgomery will play going forward is unclear but the news comes just as the National Videogame Museum in Sheffield opened its UK Collection with a focus on Rebellion, who will be featured in the first Great British Studios exhibition in the future.
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