With RuneScape becoming a certifiable $1 billion hit, as its developer Jagex announced today, the company is exploring a new third-party publishing arm. Jagex Partners will invite new staff and creators into the fold to complement its tremendous monetary achievement.
Since launching the classic RPG in 2001, Jagex has enjoyed a slow burning success. Jagex Partners will be an initiative that works exclusively with third parties, focusing on “live” games such as its own RuneScape to offer publishing and update support.
“Jagex is in a position of strength and prosperity and we feel it’s the right time to share that expertise and support other developers in bringing their games to market, assisting them to build and sustain strong communities and evolve their live games into living games,” said CEO Phil Mansell.
There haven’t been any announcements made regarding which games are already in Jagex pipeline yet, nor which developers they currently have in mind. The Jagex Partners portfolio will include titles on all platforms as well.
Former CCP Games employee Sarah Tilly is coming to Jagex to take on the role of Head of Third-Party Product Management, and Simon Bull of Trion Worlds and EA will join the team as Head of Third-Party Marketing. Both Bull and Tilly will work under NCSoft’s Jeff Pabst, the new Vice President of Third-Party Publishing.
With Jagex heading to Gamescom in the next week, we’ll likely hear more about specific developers and their visions for partnering with Jagex.
