Runescape’s publisher, Jagex, maintains sturdy growth by acquiring Gamepires, a community-driven developer that designed the extremely popular SCUM.
Jagex, the leading creator and publisher of community-driven games, announced the purchase of Gamepires, an incredibly successful game production studio of experienced developers. It is known best for its open-world survival game; SCUM achieved critical and communal success in 2018. Both Gamepires and Jagex are community-driven, which means that SCUM can reach its full potential and a multi-platform 1.0 will be released in the future.
Jagex, renowned for the success of its RuneScape franchise, will collaborate with Gamepires to leverage its extensive knowledge of community-driven games and its position as a global publisher to propel SCUM to the forefront of open-world survivor games. Acquisitions and publishing by third parties are part of Jagex's plan to build a family of community-driven studios and live-service games that are the best in the business.
"Partnering with Jagex provides us the opportunity to take SCUM to the next level,"
-Tomislav Pongrac, creative director and co-founder of Gamepires.
The terms of the transaction were not made public. The shareholders of Gamepires relied on IMAP and Ostermann & Partners, respectively, for financial and legal advice during the company's formation. Jagex relied on KPMG for advice regarding its finances and taxes, and Wolf Theiss served as the company's legal advisor.
About Jagex
Jagex's flagship MMORPG, RuneScape, has more than 300 million player accounts and has made over $1 billion in lifetime revenue. In addition, it is a leader in making deep and engaging live games for PC and mobile. The Cambridge headquarters of Jagex is home to more than 450 people who work there.Jagex Partners is the third-party publishing arm of Jagex and focuses on working with game developers who create games with a strong community focus. Jagex acquired Pipeworks to propel its community-focused game studios earlier in 2022.