RuneScape developer insists it will file its accounts soon as Companies House makes proposal to strike them off
Jagex has claimed it has experienced its most successful year ever despite being three months late in producing its financial results for 2012.
As we reported in November, Jagex has yet to post its accounts for the previous year to the Companies House, which was due on September 30th.
But speaking to Develop, Jagex chief marketing officer David Solari and chief financial officer Riaan Hodgson said they intended to file their report soon, but had prioritised a number of other things such as the Transformers MMO and the release of Ace of Spades before filing their accounts.
Since speaking to Jagex just before the Christmas break, an active ‘proposal to strike off’ has been listed on the Companies House site. A spokesperson from the Companies house explained that the Registrar had made the move due to the lateness of the accounts filing.
Jagex now has three months to file their accounts – which they have said they plan to do so soon – or the company will be dissolved. This means they will be struck off as a legal limited company should they not do so.
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It should be noted however that the event of this occurring seems highly remote, given the extensive plans the 500-strong studio has for its future, as Solari explains.
“It’s been the busiest year the company has ever had,” said Solari.
“We’re developing our second really big MMO with Transformers, that’s just gone into closed beta with some great results there. We’re launching Ace of Spades which has flown right in there and it’s been at the top of the Steam charts for us which has been absolutely fantastic as well, there’s just been a huge amount of focus around that.”
Hodgson added that Jagex was very pleased with the plans it had set out last year, with the launch of a new studio in California releasing Facebook title Carnage Racing, as well as Steam top seller Ace of Spades, and insisted RuneScape was still the “cherry in the crown” for the studio, and had been doing “magnificent”.
When questioned further on whether a strong financial position meant the studio was at its most profitable ever, Hodgson said it was the developer’s “most successful year ever”.
“We’ve made choices about investing in new products coming out next year,” he said.
“So for us it’s not just driving profitability it’s driving long term, sustainable financial health. Which means we’re investing in new things and not just taking everything out as dividends as we use to in the past.”
Hodgson also insisted that the studio had already seen “great results” from its investments, and expected this to continue into next year.
In the last year, despite RuneScape surpassing 200 million registered users, and adding “revenue strength” with microstransactions into the MMO, Jagex has been reshaping its development plans.
In March the studio froze development on its sci-fi MMO Stellar Dawn and laid off 12 staff, while there were also further staff losses with the shutdown of another MMO, 8Realms. Despite this, Solari and Hodgson said 2012 had been one of the biggest years of growth for the developer, with a “significant number” of new hires and a number of jobs still vacant going into 2013.
When asked about the layoffs and whether that meant there had been some difficulties financially, Hodgson said: “As a company, our financials have never been better. But clearly as an organisation we live in a very competitive commercial world and if a product, if we don’t see a commercial success for it, we need to make pretty tough decisions to make sure that overall our financial position remains strong. So it means we do close things if they’re not successful.”
Solari added: “I mean that’s game development to a certain extent. You know, you grow there, you think there’s a great idea, you grow it and make it and sometimes it works the way you want it to and sometimes it’s not quite there. Sometimes you push it further and harder to get it to where you want it to go and it works out, sometimes it doesn’t.
“We’ve actually got a pretty good track record considering we haven’t launched an awful lot of games and the ones that we have generally been very successful But you know, nobody has a 100 per cent track record.”
That's good to hear well done!
All the negativity going on & they still pull a record profit?
If they qualify for the tax relief they could have a very impressive year.
At a time when alot of companies are losing money that's very good to get a record proft.
Yep that's your Squeal of fortune Money right there. It's the main new revenue stream that was added for the longest amount of time last year seeing it came out months before the Solomon General store so that's probually hasn't contributed as much yet.
Oh well at least where getting some awesome updates because of it including Runescape 3! The larger the "War Chest" we can make the better. Spend Spend Spend people!
It's all well and good posting good being ready to post these 'good figures' soon, however shouldn't you be looking at how this money was actually made?
The revenue this year hasn't been from groundbreaking content, or updates which are so good that they shake each player to the very core, causing their pockets to empty... No, no this additional profit has come purely from preying on the weak & easily influenced offering additional extras which both ruin the spirit and integrity of what was a fantastic product.
Please focus on ridding the game of bots as you promised to when you lifted the trade restrictions and produce some content that doesn't make me want to sit on a cactus just to feel alive!
Yeah, looks like i screwed up the first part of that message epically, lol.
Guys it's for the period of 2011 so there's no price rise on it, no squeal of fortune, no Solomon general store. As for the guy above no rich people are generally not weak & easily influenced they simply have extra disposable income & chose to use it in this way. There's been alot of good content this year & last year as well heck the content they released in the last 2 years has been the best ever! (Comes from me a 2002 vet!)
I don't give a rats behind if someone wants to waste there money on spins they get very little for what they spent 10k spins gives hardly anything of note besides about 30mill exp & about 10mill gp worth of random items (unless your very lucky) which is nothing for someone like me who has over 30 times that though normal gameplay.
As for Solomons that's pointless & almost all MMOs have a cash shop now. It's cosmetic & backspace which is useless for the most part I don't need any more then the standard spaces.
I don't begrudge a company trying to make extra money at all & really we should have been paying more Runescape was always worth more then what where paying on membership.
Jagex finally submitted their accounts.
They show a operarting profit of £6.7million profit for March 2010-march 2011 HOWEVER this is offset by the operating loss of £9.9Million for March 2011-Dec2011
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1MyxmwV1ZfWZUR6NmMtYVZHQWc/edit?pli=1
So what your saying is that 9 million loss was before all the marketing/microtransaction updates. I guess Jagex really dose need the money from the membership increase, SOF & Solomon after all.
If the trend for March 2011 - March 2012 continues they will turn over almost as much this year as last year which will help reduce that loss if not eradicate it completely due to the turn over for the 3 month period of Jan - March 2012.
Jagex turned Runescape into an online poker machine for kids from April 2012.
I'd suggest that desperate step shows that perhaps 2011 wasn't such a great year.
I'll go further and say Transformers Universe is only going to succeed if Jagex isn't associated with it. That is the degree of malevolence that Jagex has generated between themselves and customers. Not just because of the kiddie gambling but also the imperial disregard they have for customers in general.
Here is a couple of links to show how the Runescape year went.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/bronx/game_over_for_vid_kid_robber_DQgYQB3lApPVWB4FXXRiFN
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/debt-lurks-in-the-lairs-of-dragons/story-e6frg6n6-1226542293087
And finally, go to Google Trends and type in Runescape.
Not a nosedive but definitely a slippery slope, lower figures now than back in 2004.
Good luck on your gambling for kids Jagex.
The parent in that article should be held responsible the same goes for all parents if you can't keep your own credit card secure from your kid then it's likely that it was only a matter of time before they or someone else got access to it. Your old enough to have a kid you should be responsible enough to keep your credit card details secure.
I think if anybody wants to work out whether Jagex are profiteering or not, they just need to look at how Jagex have rather swiftly re-introduced an earlier version of their main game RuneScape which was cherished for it's historic combat system and which was not riddled with the cancer that are poker players, scammers and nasty vulgar teenagers.
Also, take a note of how over 100,000 RuneScape players are missing during the peak time period (of which is typically 6pm EST or 12am GMT). I am a RuneScape player and I pay £3.20 per month for membership so if 100,000 people have abstained from keeping their membership, thats a loss to the company of £320,000 per month.
No wonder they've buried their financial report for an several months!
Correction it was riddled with scammers & nasty vulgar teenagers. I know what it was like I played in 2007. Also it's 100k bots are missing RS 07 was 3/4 bots it was the height of the first bot explosion featuring balled guys with green shirts.
