mmorpg founded december 2001 2001 12 used as a trading name since 1999 1 founder andrew gower ian gower paul gower constant tedder headquarters st john s innovation centre cambridge england united kingdom 1 key people rod cousens 2 phil mansell david solari 3 alex horton 4 products list of products 8realms ace of spades block n load funorb herotopia planetarion runescape stellar dawn transformers universe war of legends revenue 45 345 000 2011 operating income 10 658 000 2011 number of employees 320 website www.jagex.com jagex games studio based in the st john s innovation centre in cambridge 5 and usually referred to as jagex is the uk s largest independent developer and publisher of online games . 6 it is best known for runescape the world s largest free to play mmorpg . 7 the company s name comes from its original slogan java gaming experts . in addition to runescape jagex has released 44 casual games on its funorb portal 8 and published several independently developed titles . 6 jagex had over 480 employees 9 currently there are approximately over 230 members of staff 10 who provide content development employee management and customer support in house . 1 contents 1 corporate history 1.1 employees 1.2 investors and management 1.3 finances 1.4 publishing and acquisitions 1.5 other media 1.6 membership and industry organisations 1.7 exhibitions and conferences 1.8 awards and accomplishments 1.9 charity fundraising 2 release history 2.1 developed 2.1.1 runescape 2.1.1.1 darkscape 2.1.2 block n load 2.1.3 funorb 2.1.4 8realms 2.1.5 carnage racing 2.1.6 chronicle runescape legends 2.2 published 2.2.1 war of legends 2.2.2 herotopia 2.2.3 ace of spades 2.2.4 entropy 2.2.5 runescape idle adventures 2.2.6 mobile 2.3 games in development 2.3.1 stellar dawn 2.3.2 transformers universe 2.4 consoles 3 reception 4 references 5 external links corporate history edit this section may have too many subsection headers dividing up its content . please help improve the article by merging similar sections and removing unneeded subheaders . august 2012 after initially creating the jagex name and logo for their projects andrew gower and paul gower began trading under the jagex name in 1999 11 describing jagex software as a small software company based in england who specialise in producing top quality java games for webpages . 12 that same year they began work on the mmorpg runescape which was released in january 2001 . in december 2001 andrew gower paul gower and constant tedder launched jagex in its current incarnation with tedder as its ceo . 13 jagex ltd formally acquired the jagex name from andrew gower in 2001 . an early jagex logo runescape grew dramatically ; one year after its release over a million free accounts had been registered . the game was originally supported by advertisements however the dot com bubble meant that there were fewer advertisers willing or able to sign with jagex . one of the first tasks of the new company was to create a paid version of the game with extra features to support hosting costs and continued development . this was achieved on 27 february 2002 when the pay to play version of runescape was released . it gained 5 000 subscribers in the first week making it one of the largest java pay to play games in the world at the time . 13 until the release of war of legends in 2010 the company used the slogan java gaming experts as it had only produced games written in java up to that point . following the launch of the flash based war of legends the company name was said to stand for just about the game experience . 13 14 better source needed employees edit as runescape gained users jagex grew its employee base . by 11 december 2003 runescape had 65 000 paying members and jagex had 29 employees . 15 on 4 may 2007 runescape had over 6 000 000 active free accounts and over 1 000 000 active pay to play subscribers . 16 in july 2012 jagex had over 500 employees . 17 investors and management edit on 23 october 2007 geoff iddison former european ceo of paypal replaced constant tedder as ceo in order to accelerate international growth . iddison resigned as ceo in january 2009 and was replaced by mark gerhard who had been jagex cto before his appointment . 6 jagex received an investment from insight venture partners in october 2005 before which the company had been self funded . 18 in december 2010 the raine group and spectrum equity investors invested in jagex while insight increased their investment . 6 andrew gower paul gower and constant tedder left the board of directors at that time . 19 in january 2012 insight increased its stake in jagex from 35 % to 55 % giving it a controlling interest in the company . 20 however in an interview gerhard stated that insight took their 55 % stake 13 months prior in december 2010 . 21 on 11 september 2014 mark gerhard announced his resignation from jagex by 2015 . 22 on 2 april 2015 rod cousens was appointed ceo of jagex following his departure from codemasters . 23 in july 2016 it was announced that jagex was purchased by chinese investors a new board of directors have also been appointed . 10 finances edit in 2010 the company turned over revenues of 44 520 000 and operating profits of 18 794 000 . in 2011 revenue increased by 2 % to 45 345 000 but profit decreased by 43 % to 10 658 000 . this was attributed to increased investment in the new games war of legends as well as the marketing activities that were accelerated during the financial year . 5 in 2012 jagex s turnover rose above 50 million for the first time in the company s history . 24 publishing and acquisitions edit in 2010 the jagex publishing division was launched with the release of war of legends . the company has stated that it has ambitious plans to release multiple titles from third party developers . 14 on 26 july 2010 jagex bought the game planetarion from renegade games who had themselves bought the rights in february 2009 . 25 in august 2010 jagex acquired the technology and assets of undercroft a mobile game developed by prague based rake in grass . 26 on 10 may 2011 jagex announced that it had formed a partnership with new york based media company herotainment to publish herotopia a superhero themed mmorpg targeted towards children . 27 the game was published on 25 may 2011 . 28 on 1 november 2012 it was announced that jagex would publish the sandbox game ace of spades . 29 other media edit on 25 july 2008 jagex released its first novel betrayal at falador 30 written by t.s. church . a sequel return to canifis was released on 24 march 2011 . 31 a third book legacy of blood was released on 19 june 2012 . 32 the financial times reported in april 2011 that the possibility of a runescape movie being developed in partnership with hasbro studios was being explored . 33 membership and industry organisations edit jagex became a member of tiga the united kingdom s game developer trade body on 15 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 . 34 jagex has also collaborated with icould a career development organisation project and several members of staff have appeared in videos on their website . 35 exhibitions and conferences edit in 2008 jagex began attending a number of gaming conventions and exhibitions both to show off its products and to give keynote speeches . events it was present at included e3 36 the leipzig games convention and the virtual worlds forum . 37 awards and accomplishments edit jagex has received recognition and awards in a number of areas . in 2007 it was ranked 59th in the sunday times 100 best companies to work for list and ranked 87th in 2008 . 38 in 2008 the company took 3rd place in the develop conference pub quiz . 39 it was also listed in the red herring top 100 europe awards . 40 in 2009 jagex was ranked as the 29th most successful game studio in the world by develop magazine . 41 it also won the best desktop game project award at the duke s choice awards 42 the golden joystick award for best uk developer 43 and was listed in the deloitte awards technology fast 50 . 44 the company also gained its first best company one to watch award 45 which it also achieved in 2010 and 2011 . in 2010 the company received the golden joystick award for best uk developer for a second year . 46 it also won business of the year in the cambridge news business excellence awards 47 the private company of the year award at the east of england business awards and was listed in the deloitte awards technology fast 50 for a second year . 48 the company was listed in the red herring global 100 winners for the first time this year . 49 in 2011 jagex received a queen s award for enterprise in the innovation category . 50 it also sponsored and won the 2011 develop quiz . 51 in november 2012 jagex won the best major employer award at the national online recruitment awards after being chosen from over 164 000 nominations . 52 charity fundraising edit since 2004 jagex has made donations to a number of national and international charities as well as running charity auctions for signed merchandise . 53 in 2008 they donated artwork and prizes to the mmocalendar which raises funds for st. jude children s research hospital . in 2011 jagex donated a total of 150 076 to a number of local and us based charities . 5 in 2013 jagex introduced the well of goodwill to runescape which allowed players to gift in game items or wealth to charity . 54 the well of goodwill also featured a hi scores page for the players who donated . 55 for every 10 million gold pieces gifted by the community jagex donated 2 to a number of charitable causes . 56 on the weekend of 21 to 24 february 2014 jagex reopened the well of goodwill to donations . they also hosted livestreams for the then active double experience weekend and released a limited offer virtual purchase to raise money for specialeffect a charity geared towards making games accessible to children with disabilities . 57 in july 2014 jagex helped raise awareness about the illegal poaching of black and white rhinos by adding rhinoceros pets and trivia questions to runescape . this campaign was partnershipped with united for wildlife . 58 in november 2014 jagex reopened the well of goodwill to support 3 new charities ablegamers donategames and youngminds . 59 release history edit developed edit runescape edit main article runescape a runescape screenshot runescape is a fantasy mmorpg released in january 2001 by andrew and paul gower . 15 it is a graphical browser game implemented on the client side in java and incorporates 3d rendering . the game has over 200 million registered accounts 60 and is recognised by the guinness world records as the world s most popular free to play mmorpg . 7 runescape takes place in the world of gielinor a medieval fantasy realm divided into different kingdoms regions and cities . 61 each region offers different types of monsters resources and quests to challenge players . the game s fictional universe has also been explored through a tie in video game on its maker s other website funorb armies of