forums.rs

Forums

Another new Jagex owner

Quick find code: 317-318-4-66286669

of 3
Dogpowder
Jun Member 2005

Dogpowder

Posts: 5,563 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
as per the London Financial Times..

..."Private equity group Carlyle has hired advisers to explore a sale for its Cambridge-based video game developer Jagex, according to people familiar with the matter.

Jagex, which has developed games including Runescape, is working with bankers at Morgan Stanley, the people said. The company could fetch more than £1bn in a sale, the people said.

Discussions are at an early stage and the timeline on a sale process could last from the end of this year until the first half of 2024, the people cautioned."

Big changes ahead?

07-Sep-2023 16:15:28

Dilbert2001
Jun Member 2006

Dilbert2001

Posts: 30,201 Sapphire Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Changes from a med size company to a large company of over $1 billion worth are pretty big.

Most certainly OSRS won't just see RS3, but plenty of other OSRS-ish games, imbued with MTX of course. The new owner will have to get at least half a billion pounds back through monetization to cover the premium they need to pay for Jagex.

07-Sep-2023 16:25:51

Dilbert2001
Jun Member 2006

Dilbert2001

Posts: 30,201 Sapphire Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
mastercast3r said :
Previous buyouts have not resulted in mtx's being added to osrs. Any decent ceo of a company big enough to buy runescape would certainly do enough home work to realize it would be a losing proposition.

Not exactly! They added sugar coated in game purchases in form of extra membership purchases of temporary events like OSRS FSW, new game modes that must be played with new characters like GIM, and of course the famous Purple Skin and Soul Wars Partnership exclusive worlds that you must buy Twitch Gaming offers etc.

These sugar coated in game purchases additions weren't too noticeable only because Jagex remained a mid sized company seeing its capitalization going only from $360 mil to $530 mil, owing to the misfortunate of its former owner Fukong Interactive in the financial and legal arenas. Since then when Carlyle Group took over, it exploded to as much as $1.25 billion in the next sale, after seeing big acquisitions of Pipeworks and Scum developer Gamepires.

The new owner of Jagex will double down and push the new Jagex to at least a $2.5 to $3 billion sales tag next. Jagex will have only one way to go - become the next AAA game conglomerate... and all AAA game studios only become AAA because of 50%-60% of revenue from MTX.

08-Sep-2023 01:23:17 - Last edited on 08-Sep-2023 02:10:20 by Dilbert2001

Miu

Miu

Posts: 16,955 Opal Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Dogpowder said :
as per the London Financial Times..

..."Private equity group Carlyle has hired advisers to explore a sale for its Cambridge-based video game developer Jagex, according to people familiar with the matter.

Jagex, which has developed games including Runescape, is working with bankers at Morgan Stanley, the people said. The company could fetch more than £1bn in a sale, the people said.

Discussions are at an early stage and the timeline on a sale process could last from the end of this year until the first half of 2024, the people cautioned."

Big changes ahead?

Not yet. They need to find a buyer in this economy. Who's gonna buy a game studio that can't make any new games?
Don't forget – RuneScape members get TWO free spins a day instead of the usual one!

08-Sep-2023 03:33:25

Dilbert2001
Jun Member 2006

Dilbert2001

Posts: 30,201 Sapphire Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Miu said :
Dogpowder said :
as per the London Financial Times..

..."Private equity group Carlyle has hired advisers to explore a sale for its Cambridge-based video game developer Jagex, according to people familiar with the matter.

Jagex, which has developed games including Runescape, is working with bankers at Morgan Stanley, the people said. The company could fetch more than £1bn in a sale, the people said.

Discussions are at an early stage and the timeline on a sale process could last from the end of this year until the first half of 2024, the people cautioned."

Big changes ahead?

Not yet. They need to find a buyer in this economy. Who's gonna buy a game studio that can't make any new games?

The original Jagex doesn't have to make new games, Gamepires and Pipeworks can make new games for the new Jagex.

"Jagex’s annual earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) stand at about 60 million pounds and are expected to increase by more than 10% next year, the sources said.

It could fetch up to 15x EBITDA, or between 900 million pounds and 1 billion pounds, in the event of a sale, they added."


https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/carlyle-weighs-options-for-runescape-creator-jagex-sources/ar-AA1gnLxj

Look for Jagex to announce much improved 2022 financia results later this year, thanks partly to contribution from SCUM and Pipeworks.

Let's say if Jagex is sold at an EBITDA of 12x instead of 15, the price tag will be 800 million pounds instead 1 billion pounds. Reuters among other Wall Street analysts expect it to be sold.

08-Sep-2023 04:21:01

Miu

Miu

Posts: 16,955 Opal Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Dilbert2001 said :
Miu said :
Dogpowder said :
as per the London Financial Times..

..."Private equity group Carlyle has hired advisers to explore a sale for its Cambridge-based video game developer Jagex, according to people familiar with the matter.

Jagex, which has developed games including Runescape, is working with bankers at Morgan Stanley, the people said. The company could fetch more than £1bn in a sale, the people said.

Discussions are at an early stage and the timeline on a sale process could last from the end of this year until the first half of 2024, the people cautioned."

Big changes ahead?

Not yet. They need to find a buyer in this economy. Who's gonna buy a game studio that can't make any new games?

The original Jagex doesn't have to make new games, Gamepires and Pipeworks can make new games for the new Jagex.
Well uhh, let me know when they actually make a game. Right now it's trendy in the games industry to buy a studio and then shut it down.
Don't forget – RuneScape members get TWO free spins a day instead of the usual one!

08-Sep-2023 04:27:50

Dilbert2001
Jun Member 2006

Dilbert2001

Posts: 30,201 Sapphire Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Miu said :
Dilbert2001 said :
Miu said :
Dogpowder said :
as per the London Financial Times..

..."Private equity group Carlyle has hired advisers to explore a sale for its Cambridge-based video game developer Jagex, according to people familiar with the matter.

Jagex, which has developed games including Runescape, is working with bankers at Morgan Stanley, the people said. The company could fetch more than £1bn in a sale, the people said.

Discussions are at an early stage and the timeline on a sale process could last from the end of this year until the first half of 2024, the people cautioned."

Big changes ahead?

Not yet. They need to find a buyer in this economy. Who's gonna buy a game studio that can't make any new games?

The original Jagex doesn't have to make new games, Gamepires and Pipeworks can make new games for the new Jagex.
Well uhh, let me know when they actually make a game. Right now it's trendy in the games industry to buy a studio and then shut it down.

We own a game regardless we make the game ourselves or buy it from somebody else. Do OSRS players really think SCUM, Pipeworks games and other Jagex Partners games don't exist and Jagex isn't investing more and reaping more profits there, just because Jagex didn't make them?

08-Sep-2023 16:51:25

Dilbert2001
Jun Member 2006

Dilbert2001

Posts: 30,201 Sapphire Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Dogpowder said :
as per the London Financial Times..
.
.
.

Big changes ahead?

Let me help you with the link to that FT article so OSRS players can get more excited:

https://www.ft.com/content/fbd6537c-ece4-493a-9d23-33e428282e05

This article also mentioned an interesting big spender in the gaming industry, Savvy Gaming Group:

"Earlier this year the Saudi wealth fund-owned Savvy Games Group acquired US-based games developer Scopely for $4.9bn in the kingdom’s latest gaming investment."


Savvy has $38 billion to spend and spent like $6 billion of it so far. The crown prince and sheiks definitely have $1 billion to spend on buying Jagex easily if they so choose. Now that we look at their goal:

"It aims to set up 250 games companies in Saudi Arabia, which will create 39,000 jobs, and raise the sector's contribution to Saudi GDP to 50 billion riyals by 2030, SPA added."


https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/saudi-wealth-funds-savvy-games-group-invest-378-billion-2022-09-29/

Seem like they are centralized in Saudi Arabia, but of course they can have branches in other countries like UK too. Perhaps the big changes have to come though as they plan to buy up gaming companies to make profits to raise the country's GDP. They even have a deadline and target number by 2030, so they are going to be monetizing like crazy perhaps.

Hey! We know OSRS helps to improve the GDP of Venezuela, right? It will be very interesting if we end up helping the GDP of Saudi Arabia. :D

11-Sep-2023 01:43:38 - Last edited on 11-Sep-2023 02:54:43 by Dilbert2001

Quick find code: 317-318-4-66286669 Back to Top