Jagex confirms record revenues driven by RuneScape and pledges investment and new games
Jagex announced a record £ 110.9 million in revenue for 2019 when it hit its fifth consecutive year of growth.
The continued success of the Cambridge game studio was driven by the all-time flagship membership of RuneScape gold titles.
The players appetite for the franchise, which is now in its twentieth edition, shows no sign of slowing down, helping Jagex grow staff from 40 to 377 in the Cambridge Science Park headquarters by the end of 2019.
Most impressive of all, however, was its annual performance, with revenues up 19.4 percent - a faster growth rate than the previous 12 months.
Operating profit, meanwhile, grew to just over £ 48.9 million, up 4.5%.
The figures will be met by the company's new owner, Macarthur Fortune Holding LLC, who purchased the studio for $ 530 million from Shanghai Hongtou Network Technology, part of the Chinese gaming company Fukong Interactive Entertainment, in April.
Phil Mansell, CEO of Jagex, said: "Jagex continues its path of growth and investment and 2019 has been an extraordinary year, as we have welcomed more living players to our living RuneScape and Old School RuneScape games than ever before, leading the company to exceed £ 100m - plus revenue for the first time in our history.
“Attracting more players and, above all, keeping our community of loyal players excited and committed in the long term speaks of the success of our philosophy of living games. This is the foundation of our strategy and is built to put players first. In turn, this has attracted world-class talent to further strengthen the fantastic Jagex team and fuel further success. "
The company's subscriber base increased by nearly half a million in 2019, with membership in RuneScape, the world's largest massively multiplayer online role-playing game, now at a record high.
Jagex converted Old School RuneScape to mobile platforms last year, winning a BAFTA for the mobile game of the year EE and the best mobile game at the Develop Stars Awards. The game reached its highest daily active players ever in 2019.
He also offered early access to RuneScape Mobile and the game, which attracted 280 million player accounts, outperformed £ 1 billion in lifetime earnings during the year - businesses that earned him the gaming company. year at the Cambridge Independent Science and Technology Awards.
This year, it will face wider competition in prizes, with the category expanded to include software companies.
Jagex also raised £ 261,692 for charity and won both the Charity Times local community engagement award and the Gamesindustry.biz CSR Best Games to Work award.
Phil added: “Following record levels of investment in 2019, we continue to invest to improve the player experience and bring the RuneScape universe to more players globally.
Old School Runescape on mobile
"Jagex is extremely robust and I am excited about our prospects because, especially in these difficult times presented by the pandemic, we continue to connect and inspire players as we head for RuneScape's 20th anniversary in January 2021."
The company moved the game development, publishing and live operations teams to remote work once the coronavirus pandemic took hold.
He also announced a number of additional player-centric initiatives during the crisis and with players from RuneScape and Old School RuneScape helped raise and donate £ 204,000 to support the work of his mental health charity partners through the pandemic.
"We continue to improve our live game services and seek to expand their availability to more potential players across multiple devices, distribution platforms and regions as we move to a multi-product, multi-platform study," added Phil.
We are also increasing investments in further growth, which will include our talent base, technology, new games, pursuing publishing opportunities and creating solid partnerships with related companies.
"It is an immense privilege to work alongside Jagex's talented people, whose hard work and dedication, together with our fantastic players, is the backbone of the company's success."
The Game or Software Company of the Year entry to the Cambridge Independent Science and Technology Awards 2020 is now open.
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