The most important MMORPG company in Europe is probably being sold

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According to current reports, the British gaming studio Jagex is apparently being sold again. The company develops two important MMORPGs, RuneScape and Old School RuneScape, and has around 600 employees. The studio is now expected to bring in 900 million euros, 3 times more than 8 years ago.

What kind of company is this?

  • Jagex is based in Cambridge, England, and is firmly associated with the cult MMORPG RuneScape. They say RuneScape has had 300 million accounts created and has generated over $1 billion in revenue (via linkedin).
  • Besides RuneScape, their other big game is also RuneScape, but in a “Classic” version: Old School Runescape. Both games are available on PC as well as on mobile.
  • Exciting for investors: Jagex talks about the fact that they develop “forever” games – games that you develop once, continue to maintain and then make endless money.

    • Old School RuneScape – Trailer for the Steam release

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    Is it the largest MMORPG company in Europe? Yes, there isn’t much competition with the relevant MMORPGs. CCP in Iceland develops EVE Online, the SF MMORPG is even more niche than Runescape. Tibia is a cult game from Germany that is even older than Runescape, but no bigger.

    The larger MMORPG companies are based in Asia (NetEase, Smilegate, Pearl Abyss) or in the USA (Blizzard, Zenimax, Amazon).

    This is the new rumor: The current owner of Jagex is the Carlyle Group, who purchased the studio in 2021. According to a report from Sky News, they now wanted to sell the developer for 1 billion euros. But because doubts arose about how attractive Jagex’s next projects would be, it was said that the figure was reduced to €900 million.

    Who wants to buy? Apparently an investment company from Luxembourg is about to win the contract. They currently hold a stake in Hermes and used to own Formula 1.

    8 years ago the studio cost “only” €300 million

    This is what lies behind it: The developer Jagex has changed hands frequently in recent years. In 2016, the studio cost a mere €300 million. In 2019 we reported on a sale. Back then the studio was about half the size it is today.

    The 900 million euros that are now being called for sound like a lot of money. But they pale in comparison to the amount Microsoft had to spend on Activision Blizzard. It was about $69 billion. But the purchase also had negative consequences:

    Microsoft lays off 1,900 gaming employees: “Painful decision”

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