Announced at the 2000AD 40 Years Of Thrill Power Festival, in Hammersmith today, Jason Kingsley of gaming company Rebellion and publishers of 2000AD, announced a new initiative for the company.

Best known as a games publisher and developer, Rebellion have made a number of 2000AD-based games, but feel they are at full capacity, and are leaving too many classic and exploitable properties on the shelf.

So they are opening up 2000AD's library of characters to other game developers, for licensing purposes. Talking to Bleeding Cool after the announcement, Kingsley emphasised that while he has had many media approaches for exploiting 2000AD characters, and has something big to announce later this year, video game makers have often seen reticent, as they see Rebellion as a competitor.

But he talked about wanting to work with other game developers and giving them freedom to expand on the 2000AD library, including Judge Dredd and Dredd-related characters. He said he's love to see someone take on Mega City One's Helltrekkers…

So anyone interested? Get in touch. Kingsley expects dozens rather than hundreds of inquiries but sees four to five games possibly developed from other publishers in the near future.