Jagex, the game developer and publisher headquartered in Cambridge known mostly for RuneScape, is once again changing ownership. The company has been the target of several private investment groups in the past few years, starting with Insight Venture Partners (2012-2016), then Hongtou (2016-2020), Macarthur Fortune Holding (2020-2021), and The Carlyle Group since 2021.
Now, it has been acquired by CVC Capital Partners, one of the world’s largest private equity firms (its assets are worth more than $188 billion with investments in LaLiga, Ligue De Football Professionnel, Premiership Rugby and the Women’s Tennis Association, among others), and Haveli Investments, an Austin-based firm with a dedicated Gaming Fund (they already invested in Omeda Studios, Behaviour Interactive, and Candivore).
Phil Mansell, CEO at Jagex, said:
I’m delighted to welcome CVC Capital Partners and Haveli Investments as strategic partners for Jagex. CVC and Haveli will help Jagex build on our portfolio of forever games, furthering our aims of supporting and growing our community of forever fans. Together we’ll create more of the experiences our fans love, innovate to empower our players further, and build new forever games that capture imaginations. The support from Carlyle has been exceptional, and that success has positioned Jagex for the future. With the continued growth of our flagship RuneScape franchise, we’re crafting more adventures to delight our forever fans, and we’re excited about the future, as we create new experiences that play to our strengths of putting our communities at the heart of everything we do.
Jagex has more than 700 employees across its various offices. The company acquired two developers last year: Pipeworks Studios and Gamepires (the Croatian team behind SCUM).
RuneScape, which has earned more than $1.5 billion in lifetime revenue, is reportedly doing very well, having hit record subscribers last year. At some point, it looked like Jagex was trying to make an action RPG based on the IP, but it has likely been canceled since.
