30 Years of ÁùºÏ±¦µä
4th December 2022
ÁùºÏ±¦µä turns 30 TODAY! Founded back in 1992 by Jason and Chris Kingsley, we’re delighted to celebrate this momentous milestone with our staff, our partners and our incredible communities across all our book, comics, TV, film, board game and gaming spaces.
We remain as committed and dedicated as we were on that first day and maintain our desire to work together on cool products and projects that entertain people all over the world.
To all you out there, thank you so much for playing our games over the last 30 years. Here’s to the next 30 years.
Chris Kingsley
The brute fact that we’re still here and still making inspiring and entertaining games, books, and comics is a source of great pride. After all, making things is fun but difficult, rewarding but frustrating, creative and challenging but it is also something that only a few people get to try, and we won’t ever take that opportunity for granted.
Jason Kingsley
What a lot we have to celebrate too! From our first ÁùºÏ±¦µä-produced feature film School’s Out Forever and the acquisition of cutting-edge motion capture studio to the multi award-winning arm of the business and over 17 years of .
As we celebrate three decades of independent game-development, film-making, publishing and beyond, let’s reflect on some of the incredible projects ÁùºÏ±¦µä worked on in 2022.
Sniper Elite 5
The Snipers among you will know that this year has been a BIG one for the Sniper Elite franchise with the latest instalment, Sniper Elite 5, launching on the 26 May. With over 5 million players and over 10 million of the famous testicle shots to date, there’s really nothing this community can’t do.
To celebrate our 30th Anniversary, we’ve also just released the FREE which pays tribute to ÁùºÏ±¦µä’s British heritage and includes the iconic British Paratrooper character skin, the much-requested Lee No. 4 bolt-action rifle and a Union Jack weapon skin for the Welrod pistol.
We believe that our 30-year anniversary is a great achievement, and we are delighted to celebrate it by rewarding our loyal community with this free content for Sniper Elite 5. We see ourselves as a true British success story, so it made perfect sense for the content to have a strong British theme
Jason Kingsley
What’s next for ÁùºÏ±¦µä’s gaming ventures? We can’t give much away just yet, but we can promise ÁùºÏ±¦µä is working on some VERY exciting new projects and we can’t wait to reveal more when the time is right. As usual, stay tuned to our official to find out more!
2000AD
2022 marked ‘s 45th anniversary, and to commemorate the occasion, we celebrated some of the much-loved characters and creators that have made it the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic – whilst also looking to the future with a fresh new series!
We started the year with the publication of the first ever 2000 AD Encyclopedia and a zarjaz online celebration of panels and interviews ( to watch). The celebration continued with collections dedicated to John Wagner, Carlos Ezquerra, Gerry Finley-Day and Al Ewing, plus the launch of the oversized Apex Edition books, showcasing the art of Brian Bolland and Mick McMahon. We also launched the new Best of 2000 AD series, which hit #3 in the bestseller list, as well as collections such as The Out, Brink, and our all-ages series, 2000 AD Regened!
Launched in 2016 after ÁùºÏ±¦µä’s acquisition of the world’s largest archive of English language comic books, has been bringing some of the very best of British comics back to print.
From the best-selling , to the seminal , this year saw the launch of Monster Fun – our brand new all-ages humour title – as well as , the special hardcover written by Preacher and The Boys writer Garth Ennis that brought back one of the greatest and most influential British comics of all time.
We’re also very excited about our forthcoming book , which celebrates the forgotten world of romance comics from the 1960s and ’70s – coming in February 2023!
Unplugged
2022 saw ÁùºÏ±¦µä Unplugged release our first original board game, with the critically-acclaimed hitting tabletops across the globe in June. This tense hidden-movement game was Karl Fairburne’s first appearance on the tabletop, stalking around the board while his opponents try to track him down and thwart the Allied plans!
We also brought Sir Ian Livingstone’s classic back with a brand-new edition for its 40th anniversary! With updated rules, recoloured art, and the introduction of the new Specialist Judges expansion it offers the ultimate Judge Dredd tabletop experience, ideal for any 2000 AD fan.
Looking ahead
Whether you are a fan of board games or RPGs, we’ve got plenty to get excited about in 2023!
On the board game side, we’ll be bringing Joyride: Survival of the Fastest to Kickstarter in the first half of the year. This fast-paced racing game sees players do whatever it takes to beat their opponents through the gates and to the finish line, whether that be through skilful driving or crushing collisions. First one over the finish line wins, and sometimes the fastest route is through everyone else!
For the role-players out there, you’ll be delighted to hear that we have several issues of planned over the course of next year and beyond! Each issue of the magazine offers a complete story, and contains everything you need to get playing in a matter of minutes – pull-out character sheets, maps, a Game Master’s reference booklet, and more. All you need are three six-sided dice, some pencils, and a group of friends ready for an adventure!
We’ll have more announcements to come as we get closer to our release dates, so be sure to follow us on , , and and sign up to the .
Audiomotion
Whilst Audiomotion hasn’t been part of the ÁùºÏ±¦µä family for all of the 30 years, we are extremely proud of what we’ve achieved and even more excited about what is still to come! The main highlight for 2022 has been relocating to ÁùºÏ±¦µä Film Studios in Didcot. We now have one of the largest spaces available for motion capture meaning we have room for more clients, prop building and space to change our volume to meet client needs.
We recently hosted a total of 50 performers and clients. This is something that would have been near impossible in our old office. With the effects of the pandemic decreasing we have finally been able to welcome clients, both new and old, into the studio, along with two of the cutest performers we know: Simba and Bonnie (see below).
We have had the opportunity to work with many impressive clients and performers over the years. Danny DeVito, Liam Neeson and Neil Newbon are but a few of the big names we’ve had the pleasure of working with, and we have worked with Disney, Warner Brothers, HBO and many more to meet their performance capture needs.
Having the opportunities to work across films, TV and games has allowed us an incredible amount of variety when it comes to taking on work. We are extremely proud to be credited on projects such as , and of course, , with many more exciting projects in the pipeline for .
We are currently expanding our team due to some very exciting projects throughout 2023, so we are really looking forward to seeing who will join our little team. Said projects are still under NDA, but if you keep an eye on our socials via all will be revealed in the coming months!
ÁùºÏ±¦µä Film Studios
2022 was an exciting year for the Studios as we had the sci-fi action horror movie The Experiment filming here, starring Rhona Mitra, Famke Janssen and Stefanie Martini. This is currently in post-production and due to release in 2023.
2022 also saw the release of Channel 4’s Richard Hammond’s Crazy Contraptions which was recorded here at the Didcot Studio. The Studio also did post on the Limited Sky TV series The Fear Index and the upcoming Amazon series Three Pines starring Alfred Molina coming to your screens in December.
For 2023 we look forward to the release of the upcoming Apple TV/HBO American war drama miniseries Masters of the Air which based it’s unit in Didcot.
Publishing
2022 has been an exciting year for publishing, covering everything from death magic to time travel and folk horror! We even picked up a with Xueting C. Ni’s Sinopticon winning Best Anthology at this year’s awards, and an Arthur C. Clarke Award nomination for Aliya Whiteley’s stunning Skyward Inn.
We began the year with Edward Ashton’s Mickey7, named one of the by The FT, which is currently being adapted by Oscar-winning director, Bong Joon-ho!
C. S. E. Cooney’s lyrical fantasy debut novel, Saint Death’s Daughter, followed in the spring and was recently included on °¾±°ù°ì³Ü²õ’s list of . Ren Hutchings’ debut, Under Fortunate Stars, was Library Journal’s , and was named one of by Book Riot!
Our Fall lead, Fiona Barnett’s The Dark Between the Trees, has delighted horror fans so far with positive reviews in and , and has been named one of by Esquire!
2023 is set to be an even more exciting year! We’ll steal you away to a mythical 15th century Spain in Ariel Kaplan’s Jewish fantasy, , lead you to a futuristic Bangalore in Lavanya Lakshminarayan’s mosaic novel, , and consider modern policing through the lens of Judge Dredd in by our very own Mike Molcher!