Jagex, the UK development studio and game publisher most known for the world’s most popular free-to-play MMORPG, RuneScape, has announced that it has been acquired by The Carlyle Group. The American investment firm, known for its 90s and early 2000s investments in the weapons and machinations of war, shifted its focus in the mid-2000s to more freeform dabbling – in telecoms, automobile rental, streetwear, oil pipelines as well as cinema and semiconductor tech.
It's a significant coup for Jagex, as The Carlyle Group alone is almost equalling the investments in the pay-to-play MMO that its parent company Jagex had made in the seven years between late 2007 and 2015 – when it closed the console and PC free-to-play store after a former Jagex employee created and advertised an alleged bug related to the expiration of in-game gold currency, later discovered, challenging illegal jewellery trading and against Jagex's freelance policy for specifically studying customer spam and excessive gifting.
"We are delighted to say that The Carlyle Group has acquired Jagex," Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard in the statement. "The Carlyle Group is a leading game industry think-tank who have a wealth of experience and contacts in the videogame industry, and we could not be more pleased to have they on board. We have a wealth of work to get done over the next couple of years, but I am excited about some of the initiatives that we'll be taking forward and looking forward to the future."
The company did not reveal the sum it paid for Jagex, though it did say that some money was released as a result of the "involuntary" share issue in January last year and later was paid as back stock at certain financial results leading up to the closing of Jagex's new venture into augmented reality toy screen wars like "Oak - Guaranteed", or "(Movement)", "Writer In Games", "Flight of Fancy" and "Alien Brought To Whoville".
While exact details were not given of the tie-up, it's likely that Jagex's developer vows to use the acquisition to "work tirelessly to provide the best possible customer experience from gameplay to creative content", "continue to deliver quality on the mobile app and tablet platforms" and "further expand its fantasy content offerings" in addition to developing its own "reimagined and refined mobile AR game experiences".
Though in an earlier release it had said that the "essential spirit , curiosity and mystery" Jagex had forever entranced this fan of its subconsciously alluring MMORPG, RuneScape has been running strong for 13 years, compared with over 1.5 million registered players for Eve Online this past year.
As such, having dealt with legal troubles, layoffs, reviveings, coin releases and a run on each item of currency over the purchase of then redeemed games earned, the
It's a significant coup for Jagex, as The Carlyle Group alone is almost equalling the investments in the pay-to-play MMO that its parent company Jagex had made in the seven years between late 2007 and 2015 – when it closed the console and PC free-to-play store after a former Jagex employee created and advertised an alleged bug related to the expiration of in-game gold currency, later discovered, challenging illegal jewellery trading and against Jagex's freelance policy for specifically studying customer spam and excessive gifting.
"We are delighted to say that The Carlyle Group has acquired Jagex," Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard in the statement. "The Carlyle Group is a leading game industry think-tank who have a wealth of experience and contacts in the videogame industry, and we could not be more pleased to have they on board. We have a wealth of work to get done over the next couple of years, but I am excited about some of the initiatives that we'll be taking forward and looking forward to the future."
The company did not reveal the sum it paid for Jagex, though it did say that some money was released as a result of the "involuntary" share issue in January last year and later was paid as back stock at certain financial results leading up to the closing of Jagex's new venture into augmented reality toy screen wars like "Oak - Guaranteed", or "(Movement)", "Writer In Games", "Flight of Fancy" and "Alien Brought To Whoville".
While exact details were not given of the tie-up, it's likely that Jagex's developer vows to use the acquisition to "work tirelessly to provide the best possible customer experience from gameplay to creative content", "continue to deliver quality on the mobile app and tablet platforms" and "further expand its fantasy content offerings" in addition to developing its own "reimagined and refined mobile AR game experiences".
Though in an earlier release it had said that the "essential spirit , curiosity and mystery" Jagex had forever entranced this fan of its subconsciously alluring MMORPG, RuneScape has been running strong for 13 years, compared with over 1.5 million registered players for Eve Online this past year.
As such, having dealt with legal troubles, layoffs, reviveings, coin releases and a run on each item of currency over the purchase of then redeemed games earned, the
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