me

Well, they knew they were going to launch RuneScape HD soon (ended up being July 2008). However they weren't sure whether MechScape would be released by the end of March 2009 or not.

If you read the Business Review you would see that they have increased in size. Here it is in chart form: I believe the increase in staff reflects the increased staffing requirements of FunOrb, RuneScape (including German and RuneScape HD) and MechScape. I think they also increased the amount of highly paid upper-tier jobs they had. Profit margin (percentage of turnover which ended up as profit not cost): 36.93% (2004), 51.94% (2005), 60.95% (2006), 53.45% (2007), 44.89% (2008). Remember Jagex had been investing heavily in FunOrb, MechScape and RuneScape HD.

Advertising has gone from £171,027 in 2004 to £2,208,355 in 2008. However, it has gone down as a percentage of primary revenue from 9.40% in 2004 to 6.84% in 2008 because Jagex are earning more from "game time sales". As always these are actual figures and do not take into account inflation.

I've gone through Jagex's accounts and made various graphs and such from them. I have just added 2008 (financial year April 1st 2007 to March 31st 2008) to the financial overview alongside its business review and future developments - these figures only came out today. I am using the actual figures so there has not been any corrections for inflation. Various financial indicators. Turnover has gone up 15% from 2007 to 2008. While advertising and subscription revenue are both shown to be going up, the data indicates that there is a trend towards subscriptions becoming a larger proportion of their primary revenue. Advertising revenue went up from £1.95m to £2.2m whereas game time sales (subscriptions) went from £26.1m to £30m from 2007 to 2008. For a long time Andrew had a majority stakeholding in the company, but after Insight invested in Jagex he merely has the largest share. However, Paul and Andrew working together still have over 50%. At first Constant was the only director, but in 2005 Andrew and Paul joined the board along with the two people from Insight who invested in Jagex. At the time of writing no filings were on record to show that Iddison has been replaced with Gerhard on the Board of Directors. What do they mean by 'second game' - MechScape? FunOrb?

In my book a good announcement from Jagex there.

Iddison replaced Constant Tedder not Andrew Gower. Tedder co-founded the company with Andrew and Paul back in 2001. Andrew remains as Jagex's lead developer working on the game.

They are trying to go after the older demographic with MechScape.

I spent a lot of time fighting people just outside of Lumbridge. When I completed one of the early quests I was really scared on the way to the bank that I was gonna be killed.

I think it is because Jagex is a private company not on the stock market. In Jagex's early days they didn't even have to have a full report, they only had to have abbreviated accounts.

No, I meant what I said. How could the figures for 08-09 be released now, that'd give them absolutely no time to get it audited by KPMG. Jagex isn't like one of those big companies who post quarterly reports, their full reports are always old. The report Jagex filed at the end of January 2008 was for the year ended 31 March 2007, and was approved by the Board on the 7th of September 2007.

It is their directors' report and financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2008.

Iddison's employment history is: C.E.O at Jagex Ltd (August 2007 - February 2009) - 1 year 6 months CEO PayPal(Europe) Ltd at eBay (May 2000 - July 2007) - 7 years 3 months C.O.O. at Christie's Inc (December 1995 - May 1999) - 3 years 6 months Managing Director at I.P.S.Ltd (January 1991 - December 1995) - 5 years Head of Product Development, R&D at Crosfield Electronics (Dupont) (July 1984 - January 1991) - 6 years 7 months ...That would make his time at Jagex his shortest tenure on record. Well, Imre Jele (former Head of RuneScape) already left. The Gower brothers own 52% of Jagex, so they still have a lot of power.

Might be completely unrelated but Jagex's 2008 financial figures are due tomorrow.

Employment history: Chief Executive Officer at Jagex (February 2009 onwards) Chief Technical Officer at Jagex (January 2008 - February 2009) Security Architect at GTECH (October 2007 - January 2008) Chief Technical Officer at Ministry of Data (November 2004 - October 2007) Group Systems Manager at Sterling Relocation (September 2002 - November 2004) Chief Operating Officer at Serious (July 2000 - April 2002) Principal Consultant at Chromasonic Computer Centre Ltd (June 1999 - July 2000) IT Director at Hospital I.T. Solutions (Pty) Ltd (January 1999 - May 1999) Security Consultant at Rand Merchant Bank (October 1998 - December 1998) Statement from last year regarding the North American servers:

I don't think he had any particular reason to resign from Paypal Europe, so it could just be that someone offered him more money or he wanted a change.

Jagex Appoints Mark Gerhard as Chief Executive Officer UK, Cambridge, 30th January, 2009 Jagex today announced the appointment of Mark Gerhard as the new Chief Executive Officer following the resignation of Geoff Iddison earlier this month. Mark Gerhard, who currently serves as the Chief Technical Officer at Jagex, has been appointed to lead the company from 1st February. I have enjoyed working for Jagex immensely, said Geoff Iddison. The business remains at the cutting edge of the video games industry and its continued growth reflects the strong business model and the high calibre of people within the company. It was great to be part of a business which is shaping the industry in such a way. On behalf of everyone at Jagex, Id like to thank Geoff for everything he has brought to the business over the last 18 months, and wish him all the best with his future endeavours, said Andrew Gower, Jagex Founder. We have an exciting year planned for 2009 and are confident of continued success with Mark as our new CEO. Mark has performed exceptionally well since joining the company last year and I am sure that Jagex will continue to flourish under his leadership. Mark joined Jagex in February 2008 from GTECH where he served as the Principle Security Architect for the National Lottery. He has held numerous executive positions and has over 14 years experience working in the technology sector. Having the opportunity to build on Jagex's phenomenal success is a great privilege and I'm honored by the boards endorsement, said Mark Gerhard. I fully intend to build value for Jagex, our players and our great staff. http://jagex.com/corporate/Press/releaseCEO_2.ws So congratulations Mod MMG, and I wish you well in your role as CEO. And here's a quote not in the press release:

I hope you find it, it sounds really interesting.

I think it was originally called "Scroll" with the poorly-capitalised examine "An intelligence Report".

Nice look at the past. Jagex have definitely done a lot. Let's go back further, to some of their earliest plans... Newsletter 1 (21 Jan 2001): Newsletter 2 (7 Feb 2001): I guess you could argue that our current clan support isn't "proper clan support", but mostly they did what they said. ...Now, even further back, to what they intended for the game before its release:

Great idea!

The same as early 2001? Nope, totally different in terms of gameplay, graphics and community.

Bring back the "Black Hole Experience"? It'll be just as pointless as it ever was, existing just to fulfil the curiosity of the masses just like in the old days. Or how about an optional 'cabbage' filter? A Guard saying "Hey! No fighting!" as part of a quest?

I seem to remember then the Wilderness came out people thought that the planks of wood lying around were gonna be used for carpentry so they collected them.

>>>Split Personalities - Chat Censor (Catherby Curmudgeon)<<< Jagex have made plenty of statements on RuneScape's demographic... And in terms of where they intend to go look no further than the July 2008 interview with Andrew: More long-term Andrew said back in June that "another graphical update may well be in the works in another four years" (other quotes about RuneScape's future posted here).

If you are bothered about RSC history then your first action should be to find the many resources already available to help inform people. We didn't get our third game server until the 25th of May 2001. The item bank wasn't launched until the 26th of July 2001. It replaced a money-only bank. IIRC they had no significance, as they were merged before they were used. Read viewtopic.php?f=28&t=724510 That option wasn't introduced until the 28th of February 2001.