Fukong Interactive planning major reorganization including partial or full sale of Jagex
Purchased in 2016 for ~$300m USD, Jagex is once again likely to be sold. This will not be the first time Jagex has had a change in ownership. Initially started and owned by the Gower brothers from 1999 - 2010, the venture capital firm Insight Venture Partner purchased a controlling share of the company in December of 2010. Jagex was then purchased outright by their current owners, Fukong Interactive in July 2016.
While many players speculate that this upcoming sale might mean increase in mirco-transactions (MTX) in the game, the original release of MTX was brought about under the ownership of IVP and is unlikely to change one way or the other any time soon. Jagex made a limited statement to Eurogamer saying:
- Whatever the outcome of Fukong's restructure, Jagex continues to execute on our short-term and long-term strategies for the RuneScape franchise, which has seen five years of consistent growth, delivered lifetime revenues of $1bn, and now has player membership at an all-time high driven by our living games approach and a successful first move to mobile with Old School RuneScape
It's difficult to say what changes may come about from the sale, but they have survived this storm before and likely will again.