Jagex
From the RuneScape Wiki, the wiki for all things RuneScape
| 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) | ||
| Industry | Computer and video game industry, MMORPG, Software consultancy & supply[1] | ||
| Products | RuneScape, FunOrb | ||
| Employees | 330 (as of June 2007)[2] | ||
| Website | http://www.jagex.com/ | ||
Jagex Ltd. (also known as Jagex Software which means Java Gaming Experts) is a United Kingdom-based producer of Java-based online video games. [3] The company is best-known for its MMORPG, RuneScape. Jagex is a well-received company, ranking 59th on the Sunday Times' 100 Best Companies to Work For list.[4]
Contents |
[edit] History
The name Jagex Software has been in use since at least 1999, and was originally described as a "small software company based in England [who] specialise in producing top-quality Java-games for webpages".[6]
According to Companies House, Meaujo (492) Limited was incorporated on April 28, 2000, and changed its name to Jagex Limited on June 27, 2000.[1] In 2006, Andrew 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 ($190 million USD). Andrew Gower is also known for his varieties of Java games.[7] Jagex also received an investment from Insight Venture Partners in October of 2005.[8] The company had been self-funded before this investment. RuneScape has since been translated into a German open beta, which was released on March 7, 2007.[9][10] Jagex was ranked 59th on the list of The Best 100 Companies to work for by the Sunday Times.[11]
[edit] Future development
Jagex have stated on their website that they "intend to become a significant online operator in all the major gaming markets worldwide"[12] by developing new games using their own technologies."
[edit] Operation
Jagex has grown since the founding of the company in 2001. They currently have offices in Cambridge and London. The company had been recruiting heavily in 2006 and has over 300 employees, grouped into the Development, Publishing, Web Content, Minigame, and Customer Relations teams.
They maintain about 161 servers for RuneScape in various locations around the United States, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, and the United Kingdom. One of the most recent additions to the servers was the addition of the four 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.[9]
In February 2008 Jagex announced that they would be releasing a casual browser based gaming site called FunOrb within the month. The site would host small games verying in amount of possible playtime from minutes to hours. 40% of the website would be available for free while the other 60% would be available to persons who pay a $4 US sum per month (3 with a RuneScape membership).
FunOrb was released on February 27, 2008[13]. It uses the same account information as RuneScape but requires a seperate membership. Updates are released approximately every 2 weeks.
Jagex is currently translating RuneScape into a French version, although a release date has not been announced.
[edit] 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 their website.
[edit] Games
- Meltdown
- Vertigo
- Flea Circus
- Gold Mine
- Monkey Puzzle
- FunOrb
[edit] YouTube channel
Jagex now has its own YouTube channel, called "The Jagex Channel", which is "The official YouTube channel for Jagex Ltd, producers of quality online games based on Java technology."[14]
Jagex has verified the authenticity of the channel, and has stated that it is permissible for RuneScape players to discuss openly the videos on the channel[15]. This is an exception to their general policy, which is that discussion of specific YouTube videos in-game is prohibited.
The channel currently contains nine videos. The first seven videos are previews of FunOrb games. The last two videos are about the July 2008 major graphics update.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Companies House WebCHeck. Retrieved 2007-07-29.
- ^ Full Credits List. Jagex Ltd.. Retrieved on 2007-06-27.
- ^ What is Jagex?. Jagex Ltd.. Retrieved on 2007-03-12.
- ^ The Sunday Times. Sunday Times. Retrieved on 2008-05-02..
- ^ Bang! I win! Jagex team photo. Jagex Ltd. (2003-04-23). Retrieved on 2007-10-03.
- ^ Jagex Software. Jagex Ltd. (1999-11-29). Retrieved on 2007-06-11.
- ^ Rich List 2006. Sunday Times Online. Retrieved on 2007-03-12.
- ^ RuneScape Developers Jagex Ltd. Secure Investment from Insight Venture Partners. GamingBlog (2005-10-28). Retrieved on 2007-01-29.
- ^ a b German Language Beta Launch – Some Information. Jagex Ltd. (2007-02-14). Retrieved on 2007-03-12.
- ^ Hereinspaziert - die Open Beta der deutschen Version beginnt! (German). Jagex Ltd. (2007-02-07). Retrieved on 2007-03-08.
- ^ The Sunday Times Best 100 Companies to Work For. Sunday Times Online. Retrieved on 2007-03-22.
- ^ Jagex Company History. Jagex Ltd.. Retrieved on 2007-03-12.
- ^ FunOrb Announcement Forums - "Welcome to FunOrb". Retrieved 2008-05-25.
- ^ "The Jagex Channel", YouTube.com
- ^ "The Reporting Academy - FAQ", RuneScape official forums
