Jagex
Jagex Limited is a British video game developer and publisher based at the Cambridge Science Park in Cambridge, England. It is best known for RuneScape and Old School RuneScape, collectively known as the world's largest free-to-play massively multiplayer online role-playing games. The company's name is derived from the company's original slogan, "Java Gaming Experts". In addition to RuneScape, Jagex has released multiple casual games on its FunOrb portal, as well as other titles. Jagex was owned by U.S. investors between 2012 and 2016, by Chinese investors from 2016-2020, and is currently owned by a global asset management company.
History
After initially creating the Jagex name and logo for their projects, brothers and computer programmers Andrew Gower and Paul Gower began trading under the Jagex name in 1999, describing Jagex Software as a "small software company based in England who specialise in producing top-quality Java-games for webpages." That same year they began work on the MMORPG RuneScape, which was released in January 2001. In December 2001, Andrew Gower, Paul Gower, and Constant Tedder launched Jagex in its current incarnation, with Tedder as its CEO. Jagex formally acquired the Jagex name from Andrew Gower in 2001.RuneScape grew dramatically; one year after its release over a million free accounts had been registered. The game was originally supported by advertisements, however, the Dot-com bubble meant that there were fewer advertisers willing or able to sign with Jagex. One of the first tasks of the new company was to create a paid version of the game with extra features, to support hosting costs and continued development. This was achieved on 27 February 2002 when the pay-to-play version of RuneScape was released. It gained 5,000 subscribers in the first week, making it one of the largest Java pay-to-play games in the world at the time.
Until the release of War of Legends in 2010, the company used the slogan "Java Gaming Experts" as it had only produced games written in Java up to that point. Following the launch of the Flash-based War of Legends, the company name was said to stand for "Just About the Game Experience".
Company structure
As RuneScape gained users, Jagex grew its employee base. By 11 December 2003, RuneScape had 65,000 paying members, and Jagex had 29 employees. On 4 May 2007, RuneScape had over 6,000,000 active free accounts and over 1,000,000 active pay-to-play subscribers. In July 2012, Jagex had over 500 employees.On 23 October 2007, Geoff Iddison, former European CEO of PayPal, replaced Constant Tedder as CEO in order to "accelerate international growth." Iddison resigned as CEO in January 2009 and was replaced by Mark Gerhard, who had been Jagex CTO before his appointment. Jagex became a member of TIGA, the United Kingdom's game developer trade body, on 15 April 2009. Richard Wilson, TIGA's CEO, described Jagex as "one of the most successful game developers in the world, not just the UK. Jagex has developed extraordinarily popular games and is at the leading edge in terms of online safety and security."
Jagex received an investment from Insight Venture Partners in October 2005, before which the company had been self-funded. In December 2010 The Raine Group and Spectrum Equity Investors invested in Jagex, while Insight increased their investment. Andrew Gower, Paul Gower, and Constant Tedder left the board of directors at that time. In January 2012, Insight increased its stake in Jagex from 35% to 55%, giving it a controlling interest in the company. However, in an interview, Gerhard stated that Insight took their 55% stake 13 months prior in December 2010. On 11 September 2014, Mark Gerhard announced his resignation from Jagex by 2015. On 2 April 2015, Rod Cousens was appointed CEO of Jagex following his departure from Codemasters. In July 2016 it was announced that Jagex was purchased by Hongtou, a Chinese investment company. Hongtou was subsequently acquired by Zhongji Holdings, which later changed its name to Fukong Interactive Entertainment. Jagex remained under Hongtou within Fukong's structure until it was sold to Macarthur Fortune Holding, a US-based asset management company, in April 2020. Macarthur Fortune Holding, through its Platinum Fortune fund, paid for this acquisition.
Phil Mansell became Jagex' CEO in January 2017.
Charity fundraising
Since 2004 Jagex has made donations to a number of national and international charities, as well as running charity auctions for signed merchandise. In 2008 they donated artwork and prizes to the MMOCalendar, which raises funds for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.In 2011, Jagex donated a total of £150,076 to a number of local and US-based charities.
In 2013, Jagex introduced the "Well of Goodwill" to RuneScape, which allowed players to gift in-game items or wealth to charity. The Well of Goodwill also featured a hi-scores page for the players who donated. For every 10 million gold pieces gifted by the community, Jagex donated $2 to a number of charitable causes. On the weekend of 21 to 24 February 2014, Jagex reopened the well of goodwill to donations. They also hosted livestreams for the then-active double experience weekend and released a limited-offer virtual purchase to raise money for SpecialEffect, a charity geared towards making games accessible to children with disabilities.
In July 2014, Jagex helped raise awareness about the illegal poaching of black and white rhinos by adding rhinoceros pets and trivia questions to RuneScape. This campaign was partnershipped with United for Wildlife.
In November 2014, Jagex reopened the Well of Goodwill to support 3 new charities: AbleGamers, DonateGames, and YoungMinds.
Games
Developed
''RuneScape''
RuneScape is a fantasy MMORPG released in January 2001 by Andrew and Paul Gower. It is a graphical browser game implemented on the client-side in Java, and incorporates 3D rendering. The game has over 200 million registered accounts, and is recognised by the Guinness World Records as the world's most popular free-to-play MMORPG.RuneScape takes place in the world of Gielinor, a medieval fantasy realm divided into different kingdoms, regions, and cities. Each region offers different types of monsters, resources, and quests to challenge players. The game's fictional universe has also been explored through a tie-in video game on its maker's other website, FunOrb, Armies of Gielinor, and the novels Betrayal at Falador, Return to Canifis and Legacy of Blood.
Players are represented in the game with customisable avatars. RuneScape does not follow a linear storyline; rather, players set their own goals and objectives. Players can choose to fight non-player character monsters, complete quests, or increase their experience in the available skills. Players interact with each other through trading, chatting, or by participating in mini-games and activities, some of which are competitive or combative in nature, while others require cooperative or collaborative play.
''Old School RuneScape''
Old School RuneScape is a separate incarnation of RuneScape released on 22 February 2013, based on a copy of the game from August 2007. It was opened to paying subscribers after a poll to determine the level of support for releasing this game passed 50,000 votes, followed by a free-to-play version on 19 February 2015. Old School RuneScape receives regular content updates, which must be voted on by its players before they can be added to the game. On 17 July 2017, Jagex announced the development of a mobile version of Old School RuneScape.''DarkScape''
On 16 September 2015 Jagex released DarkScape, a separate version of RuneScape which featured open-world player versus player combat. DarkScape was originally released with most of RuneScape's content, but received separate content updates. DarkScape was completely free to play, with some additional benefits reserved for paying subscribers. On 29 February 2016 it was announced that DarkScape would close on 28 March due to lack of interest.''Block N Load''
On 11 December 2014, Block N Load, a sandbox building tactical first-person shooter game went into closed beta. On 5 March 2015, Jagex announced that Block N Load would be released for PC on 30 April 2015.''FunOrb''
FunOrb was a casual gaming site created by Jagex. Launched on 27 February 2008, it was the company's first major release after RuneScape. All of the games were programmed in Java. FunOrb was permanently shut down on the 7th of August 2018.The site was mainly targeted towards the "hard casual," "deep casual" or "time-pressured" gamer market.
''8Realms''
8Realms was an HTML-based empire-building massively multiplayer online strategy game developed by Jagex. It was the company's first internally developed MMORTS, and second published MMORTS after War of Legends.The 8Realms closed beta was released on 5 May 2011; players were given advanced access to the closed beta by invitation and through the game's Facebook page. On 28 May 2012, Jagex announced they were closing the game, stating that "it has become clear that the game doesn’t meet our high expectations for success."
''Carnage Racing''
On 11 October 2012 Jagex announced it was developing a racing game on Facebook called Carnage Racing. The game runs on the Unity game engine and was released in November 2012.''Chronicle: RuneScape Legends''
Jagex announced Chronicle: RuneScape Legends at RuneFest 2014 for launch in the coming year. It allows players to build their own adventure with cards using characters from RuneScape.On 25 November 2015 Chronicle entered closed beta, and it was released on Steam on 26 May 2016. On 8 May 2018, it was announced that the game would be removed due to "multiple technical issues" combined with a dwindling player base. The servers for the game remained running until 6 August 2018.
Published
''War of Legends''
War of Legends was an MMORTS set in a world of ancient Chinese mythology, which was released on 19 January 2010. It was Jagex's first MMORTS, the company's first externally developed game, the first game published by Jagex not to be written in Java, and the company's first microtransactional game. The game was shut down on 22 December 2014, and on 29 January 2015 Jagex announced that the game would not come back online due to unresolved security issues.''Herotopia''
On 10 May 2011 Jagex announced that it was working with the New York-based children's media company Herotainment to publish a new browser-based game called Herotopia, which was released on 25 May. According to Jagex the game will be a "virtual world which provides kids with a fun and enjoyable experience they can make their own." The game is now closed.''Ace of Spades''
On 1 November 2012 it was announced that Jagex would publish the sandbox game Ace of Spades. The game was released on Steam on 12 December 2012. The game's servers were shut down on 6 March 2019.Mobile
Jagex released its first mobile game, Bouncedown, for the iPhone and iPod touch on 3 December 2009, followed by StarCannon on 15 April 2010, Miner Disturbance on 8 June 2010, and Undercroft on 23 September 2010.8Realms, the company's first HTML based game, was designed to work on the iPad.