Jagex acquires SCUM developer company

Cambridge, England – (working wire) – Jagex, a leading developer and publisher of community-driven games, today announces the acquisition of Gamepires, a highly successful game development studio with over 50 experienced developers best known for its open-world survival titles, scum.

Founded in 2010, Gamepires is an independent developer based in Zagreb, Croatia. Gamepires launched SCUM to great critical and community success in 2018, selling more than 3 million copies and firmly occupying a place in Steam’s top 100 games played. Gamepires’ and Jagex’s community-driven approach will enable SCUM to achieve its full potential with a future multi-platform 1.0 release.

Jagex, known for its success runescape franchise, it will use its deep expertise in community-driven gaming and its platform as an international publisher to accelerate SCUM as a leading open-world survival title. Through third-party acquisitions and publishing, Jagex continues to leverage its expertise to create an industry-leading family of community studios and live service games.

“Building gaming communities is the lifeblood of what we do at Jagex, and that shared passion is why we are thrilled to welcome Gamepires into the fold,” said Phil Mansell, CEO of Jagex. “We believe in the vision of Tomislav, Andrej and their talented team who have built an impressive open-world survival game, built a highly engaged community and developed a solid profitable business. With the support and support of our Jagex Partners publishing team, together we will make SCUM an even greater global success.”

“The partnership with Jagex provides us with the opportunity to take SCUM to the next level,” said Tomislav Pongrac, Gamepires Creative Director and Co-Founder. “Jagex’s world-class reputation as a gamer-driven game development company is true to our ethos and will help us grow as an entrepreneur and a studio. We are very excited to see how we can build on everything we’ve achieved with SCUM thus far and take the game to its fullest potential.”

In 2021, Jagex was acquired by global investment firm Carlyle (NASDAQ: CG) to support the company’s growth strategy, including mergers and acquisitions. “We are delighted to support Jagex with the acquisition of a highly talented development team,” said Michael Wand, Managing Director and Co-Head of the Advisory Team, Carlyle Europe Technology Partners. “This diversifies Jagex’s portfolio of quality development studios, creating unique community-focused game experiences.”

The terms of the deal were not disclosed. IMAP and Ostermann & Partners acted as financial and legal advisors to Gamepires shareholders, respectively. KPMG acted as Jagex’s financial and tax advisors and Wolf Theiss as its legal advisor.

About gamepires

Gamepires was founded in 2010 and headquartered in Zagreb, Croatia, with more than ten years of experience in game development. Gamepires are known for their hack strike scum, a next-gen open-world survival game available on Steam. Since its early release, scum It has sold more than 3 million copies, is consistently featured in the 100 most played games on Steam, and has won many important awards.

About Jagex

Pioneering the creation of deep and engaging live-action games on PC and mobile, Jagex’s flagship MMORPG, runescape, has welcomed more than 300 million player accounts in its universe and represents a franchise in revenue of $1 billion. Jagex employs more than 450 people at its headquarters in Cambridge. Jagex has expanded its portfolio of community-focused game studios with the acquisition of Pipeworks earlier in 2022. Jagex Partners is the third-party publishing arm of Jagex, focusing on developers of community-driven games.