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Jagex Ltd. (or Jagex Software/JAGeX) is a producer of online computer games. It is based in Cambridge, UK. It is most well known for Runescape as well as for producing the FunOrb games site for casual gamers. Jagex has over 350 employees, with all content development, management and customer support being provided from the company itself.
The Company produces games exclusively written using the Java language, its name standing for JAva Gaming EXperts. It has received a number of awards for its achievements and is one of the highest profile developers in the UK.
History
In 1999, Andrew and Paul Gower began trading under the Jagex name. They described Jagex Software as a “Small software company based in England who specialise in producing top-quality Java-games for webpages”. That same year, Andrew Gower began creating the MMORPG RuneScape with his brother Paul Gower. RuneScape was released in January 2001, and in December that year, Andrew Gower, Paul Gower and Contant Tedder (Another founding member) launched Jagex. Constant Tedder was the CEO. In 2001, Jagex Ltd formally acquired the Jagex name.
After one year, RuneScape Already had over one million free accounts registered. The company's tasks were to create a version of the game with extra features that required a monthly fee, while still offering the free version. Another task was to develop partnerships with advertisers. Both tasks were achieved, and the subscription version of RuneScape was released on the 27th of February 2002. It achieved 5,000 subscriptions in the first week – making it one of the largest Java pay to play games in the world.
As RuneScape's popularity grew, so did Jagex. By the 11th of December, 2003 it had 65,000 paying members, and Jagex had 29 employees. By the 4th of May, 2007, it had over 6,000,000 active free acctounts, and over 1,000,000 active pay-to-play subscribers, and Jagex had over 400 employees. In October 2005, the company received an investment from Insight Venture Partners, prior to this, the company had been self-funded.
On the 23rd of October, 2007, Geoff Iddison, former Europeon CEO of PayPal, replaced Constant Tedder as CEO of Jagex. Since Iddison was appointed, Jagex has appeared in the press far more frequently than it had under Tedder.
On the 27th of February, 2008, Jagex released FunOrb an online mini-games portal, with 18 launch games. FunOrb is written in Java and can be played from a browser.
On the 25th of July, 2008, Jagex released its first novel – RuneScape: Betrayal at Falador written by TS Church. To promote the release of this novel, 10 of the pre-ordered copies were signed by TS Church, Andrew Gower, Paul Gower, Geoff Iddison and the cover artist. The book was published by Babel Interactive Ltd of Worcestershire.
Iddison resigned as CEO in January 2009, and was replaced by Mark Gerhard who had been the Chief Technical Officer for Jagex before becoming CEO.
Jagex became a member of Tiga on the 15th of April, 2009. Richard Wilson (Tiga's CEO) described Jagex as “one of the most successful game developers in the world, not just the UK. Jagex has developed extraordinarily popular games and is at the leading edge in terms of online safety and security.
Software Highlights from Credited Titles
Jagex's first work that SPOnG is aware of is the 2001 title, "RuneScape" (PC).
The company has been involved titles released on the PC.
The company's most recent involvement was on the 2013 release "RuneScape 3" (PC).
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