Jagex

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Jagex Ltd.
Type Private
Founded 2001 (incorporated 28 April 2000[1])
Headquarters Cambridge, United Kingdom
Key people Andrew Gower, Paul Gower, and Constant Tedder, Founders; Geoff Iddison, CEO[2][3]
Industry Interactive entertainment, MMORPG, Software consultancy and supply[1]
Website http://www.jagex.com/
RuneScape Portal


Jagex Ltd. (or Jagex Software) is a United Kingdom-based producer of Java-based online computer games. According to developer Paul Gower, Jagex stands for Java Gaming Experts.[4] The company is best-known for its MMORPG, RuneScape.

Contents

History

Andrew Gower began trading under the Jagex name in 1999[5], and described Jagex Software as a "small software company based in England who specialise in producing top-quality Java-games for webpages"[6]. In December 2001, Andrew Gower, Paul Gower, and Constant Tedder launched Jagex in its current incarnation to "take over the running of RuneScape, underlying technologies and other games developed by Andrew"[4]. The company was incorporated on 28 April 2000 as Meaujo (492) Limited[1], changed its name to Jagex Limited on 27 June 2000, and formally acquired the Jagex name from Andrew Gower in 2001.

By this time, one year after the release of the game, RuneScape already had over one million free accounts registered. The first tasks of the company were to create a version of the game with extra features that required a £3.20 ($5USD)($7.50C$)monthly fee, while still offering the free version, and to develop partnerships with advertisers. Both tasks were achieved, and the pay-to-play version of RuneScape was released on 27 February 2002, gaining 5,000 subscriptions in the first week making RuneScape one of the largest Java pay to play games in the world. Currently, RuneScape has over 6,000,000 active free accounts and over 1,000,000 active pay-to-play subscribers as of 4 May 2007.[7] More than 6,000,000 people log into RuneScape at least once a month. In 2006, founders Andrew Gower and Paul Gower were calculated to be worth £32 million. On "The Rich List 2007" Andrew and Paul are under claims to be worth £106 million ($217 million USD). Andrew Gower is also known for his varieties of Java games.[8] Jagex received an investment from Insight Venture Partners in October of 2005.[9] The company had been self-funded before this investment. Jagex was ranked 59th on the list of The Best 100 Companies to work for by the Sunday Times.[10]

Future development

Jagex have stated on their website that they "intend to become a significant online operator in all the major gaming markets worldwide"[11] by developing new games using their own technologies, and that "other multiplayer games will be returning soon in a new suite, but updated and improved with many new features"[12]. They made this claim in 2004, however so many have questioned whether they really meant "soon". An interview with CEO Geoff Iddison revealed that Jagex plan "to launch a couple of new titles" in 2008 and that future titles may be based around the idea of being "part-funded through item sales", but maintain that RuneScape "will be the main investment focus for Jagex for the next five years"[13]. The CV's of alleged current and former Jagex staff claim that Jagex has been working on a space MMORPG since at least April 2005[14][15][16]. Jagex has registered UK trademarks and various related domain names for the terms "MechScape" and "FunOrb"[17][18][19][20].

Operation

Jagex has grown since the founding of the company in 2001. They currently have offices in Cambridge and London. The company has been recruiting heavily in 2006 and has over 400 employees, grouped into the Development, Publishing, Web Content, Minigame, and Customer Relations teams.

They maintain about 140 servers for RuneScape in various locations around the United States, Canada, Australia, Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, and the United Kingdom. One of the most recent additions to the servers was the addition of the three German beta servers, which are currently the only servers for a non-English version of the game. Their current major focus is on translating RuneScape into non-English markets, primarily working on a recently-released German translation of the game.[21]

Beyond RuneScape

While most of the work by Jagex staff now deals with RuneScape, they still maintain a few other games that one can play online at the company's website.[22] These games are:

  • Meltdown
  • Vertigo
  • Flea Circus
  • Gold Mine
  • Monkey Puzzle

A couple of new titles are to be launched in 2008. They will be also be using Java[23], though no other information has been revealed.

References

  1. ^ a b c Companies House WebCHeck. Retrieved 29 July 2007.
  2. ^ Jagex (2007). Full Credits List (English). Jagex. Retrieved on 2007-10-19.
  3. ^ Geoff Iddison's public profile (English). LinkedIn (2007). Retrieved on 2007-10-19.
  4. ^ a b What is Jagex?. RuneScape knowledge base. Jagex. Retrieved on 2007-03-12.
  5. ^ Jagex Limited v. na c/o Kristen Shilley. National Arbitration Forum (2007-1-23).
  6. ^ Jagex Software. Jagex (1999-11-29). Retrieved on 2007-06-11.
  7. ^ RuneScape reaches one million members!. Jagex (4 May 2007). Retrieved on 2007-05-04.
  8. ^ Rich List 2006. Sunday Times Online. Retrieved on 2007-03-12.
  9. ^ RuneScape Developers Jagex Ltd. Secure Investment from Insight Venture Partners. GamingBlog (28 October 2005). Retrieved on 2007-01-29.
  10. ^ The Sunday Times Best 100 Companies to Work For. Sunday Times Online. Retrieved on 2007-03-22.
  11. ^ Jagex Company History. Jagex. Retrieved on 2007-03-12.
  12. ^ Jagex Software :: Minigames (English). Jagex Software (2007). Retrieved on 2007-11-28.
  13. ^ Mark Ward (2007). British gaming firm takes on the world (English). BBC News. Retrieved on 2007-11-28.
  14. ^ Thomas Woode. Thomas Woode's Curriculum Vitae (English). Thomas Woode. Retrieved on 2007-10-23.
  15. ^ John Seru. John Seru's Curriculum Vitae (English). John Seru. Retrieved on 2007-10-23.
  16. ^ MechScape Central (2007). MechScape Central (English). Retrieved on 2007-10-23.
  17. ^ Case details for Trade Mark 2403672 (English). UK Intellectual Property Office. Retrieved on 2007-10-23.
  18. ^ Mechscape World : Mechscape History & Information (English). Mechscape World (2007). Retrieved on 2007-11-28.
  19. ^ Case details for Trade Mark 2448627 (English). UK Intellectual Property Office. Retrieved on 2007-10-23.
  20. ^ Case details for Trade Mark 2432576 (English). UK Intellectual Property Office. Retrieved on 2007-10-23.
  21. ^ Cite error 8; No text given.
  22. ^ Jagex games index. Jagex. Retrieved on 2007-03-12.
  23. ^ Ward, Mark (2007-11-13). British gaming firm takes on the world.

External links

These articles are part of the Jagex series:
RuneScape Portal
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jagex"
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