JAN. 9, 2012 • New York City-based Insight Venture Partners raised its stake in publisher Jagex to 55% from the 35% acquired in 2005. Jagex is best known for the popular online MMO Runescape.
Impact: Runescape has been around for years and is a pioneer in the free-to-play browser space. Jagex is trying to expand beyond Runescape by offering a wide variety of F2P browser games and also iPhone products. The new DFC Intelligence report on this space closely examines the challenges companies like Jagex face. Crucially the market is reaching the point of saturation with far more products than the market can support. Runescape launched in 2001 as a pioneer in an emerging market. The challenge for Jagex going forward is that many companies now follow the Runescape model and building that size of audience for a new product is much more challenging.Â
