EA/Activision Told Jagex To [bleep] Off

[Sly_Wizard]

I'm pretty sure that if EA had published Runescape, it wouldn't exist today. Outside of sports games, EA has a knack for totally [bleep]'ing up projects they take on.

[Cheefoo]

Thank GOD they didn't want anything to do with Jagex. This is a blessing in disguise, really.

[me]

I never knew that Sony invested in Jagex back in 2005

That's because the article is incorrect and Sony never invested in 2005, they nearly invested. In the end it was Insight Venture Partners who invested in October 2005.

 

The article is just misleading but not incorrect, "Was willing" doesnt mean they have done it.

Ah, I had assumed Omali was referring to the Massively article which incorrectly states "Ultimately, Jagex was able to parlay their success into an investment deal with Sony". The article from gamepolitics is indeed merely potentially misleading.

[Jaded]

If Activision signed on we would have had Mechscape already!

 

(I hope there's some people here who remember Mechwarrior....gawd I feel old).

 

Seriously, I want Mechwarrior as an MMO...factions, mercenaries, salvaging weapons off your enemies and arenas! Bring on Mechscape!

[Overdoziz]

Jagex is the only company I've seen that actually gives a damn about its players. Even if we gripe and moan, they for the most part give us what we want.

:wall:

[AlexRose]

Thank god. Activision probably would've fired MMG to get out of paying him anyway... Just look at what they did with Infinity ward...

 

.......

 

WAIT ACTIVISION RECONSIDER!!!!

 

Perferring Bobby Kotick to Mod MMG for being the head of Runescape is like perferring Satan to a kitten as your pet simply because the kitten occasionally peed on your carpet, where as Satan has not personally done anything bad to you at that current time.

[Stragomagus]

Jagex trying to make other companies look bad so people forget about how they screw up them selfs all the time.

Clever Jagex, clever.

EA and activision aren't exactly known for stellar mmo's. or even online games for that matter. still waiting for someone to muster up the balls to tell of Blizzard

 

Uhm... EA = The Old Republic

Activision = World of Warcraft

just because blizzard is a part of activision doesn't mean activision influences them. blizzard does their own developing and publishing for their games.

'

 

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=16458

 

Just thought you would like to know.

[Star_Fox]

Jagex is the only company I've seen that actually gives a damn about its players. Even if we gripe and moan, they for the most part give us what we want.

 

What are you smoking? Can I have some?

[SwreeTak]

EA failed quite much there. However Sony did a good choice. I have always liked Sony, even though I have never bought something from that company. I don't know why I like them really.. :S

[1337_Byte]

It's a good thing Activision isn't publishing for Jagex, they are a very greedy company.

[testingsomestuff123]

It's a good thing Activision isn't publishing for Jagex, they are a very greedy company.

 

$15 for membership. Gogogo.

[Tim]

It's a good thing Activision isn't publishing for Jagex, they are a very greedy company.

Sadly its true. Activision have even been considering making people PAY to play Call of Duty online, defeating the purpose of Multiplayer installation and they try to milk everyone for as much as possible.

[Leyenda]

Jagex is the only company I've seen that actually gives a damn about its players. Even if we gripe and moan, they for the most part give us what we want.

:wall:

[xxshady]

Jagex trying to make other companies look bad so people forget about how they screw up them selfs all the time.

Clever Jagex, clever.

EA and activision aren't exactly known for stellar mmo's. or even online games for that matter. still waiting for someone to muster up the balls to tell of Blizzard

 

Uhm... EA = The Old Republic

Activision = World of Warcraft

just because blizzard is a part of activision doesn't mean activision influences them. blizzard does their own developing and publishing for their games.

'

 

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=16458

 

Just thought you would like to know.

 

I was gonna tear him up for being an ignorant kid, but you beat me. Shucks :(

[1337_Byte]

It's a good thing Activision isn't publishing for Jagex, they are a very greedy company.

Sadly its true. Activision have even been considering making people PAY to play Call of Duty online, defeating the purpose of Multiplayer installation and they try to milk everyone for as much as possible.

 

Yeah I read about that, it's pretty sad. People have to pay $60 for the game, $8 a month for live, and a lot of MS points to get the map packs. Adding in additional payments would just be ridiculous.

[The Dark Lord]

It doesn't surprise me that Jagex tried to sell out the Runescape community...again. Personally, I think Gower was a fool for creating Jagex. He basically gave away his own game. You can argue all day long that it also gave him a lot of wealth, but I am under the opinion that he could have done well enough by keeping himself indie and taking care of Runescape as his own personal project as a developer. [/tangent]

 

tl;dr Jagex was foolish for going to EA/Activision.

[Mercifull]

Jagex has over 400 staff. Do you really think Andrew could still run runescape from his basement? :blink:

[The Dark Lord]

Jagex has over 400 staff. Do you really think Andrew could still run runescape from his basement? :blink:

 

Many independent developers still run their games by themselves or with the help of their brothers/friends. The size of Jagex's staff is irrelevant. Likewise, Runescape would never have had a multi-million person fanbase, but it would have most likely had enough of a fanbase to cover the costs of maintaining the software and hardware. It would have also been able to give Gower plenty of income in order to make a living.

 

Of course, it all boils down to a matter of preference. There are games on the Internet that have huge potentials to become very popular, not unlike Runescape in its early days, but the developers decided to keep their software out of corporate hands because of their moral convictions. They may not be wealthy from their products, but there are independent developers that make a decent living from their games as well.

 

You can't blame them for wanting to stay small. Big companies/corporations have the great potential to become abusive or greedy.

[meb]

Funorb fails because there are better games out there for free (miniclip, armorgames etc.).

[hohto]

Many independent developers still run their games by themselves or with the help of their brothers/friends. The size of Jagex's staff is irrelevant. Likewise, Runescape would never have had a multi-million person fanbase, but it would have most likely had enough of a fanbase to cover the costs of maintaining the software and hardware. It would have also been able to give Gower plenty of income in order to make a living.

 

Lets see.

 

You can:

- See the game you created being played by hundreds of millions of different people.

- Own over 500 million pounds because of something you created.

- Got the reputation of being a "guru" amongs rs players and especially at the software groups.

- Hire enough staff to fullfill even your wildest dreams.

 

or you can:

- See the game you created being played by 1% of the players it could be played by.

- Own just enough to make living and not even being independed to be sure you can put all your time on the thing you created.

- Be known at UG-gaming groups.

- Do basically everything by yourself and due lack of time and possibly skills miss the things you wanted

 

You realize that Andrew is still doing a lot for Jagex and he's the main stock owner. It's not like he had exactly "sold it", he still is the main party the CEO has to answer to, he works for the company and so on.

[pulli23]

he works for the company and so on.

That describes it all..

 

Nowadays it seems a must that everyone needs to be big, and have lots of shareholders..

 

 

There is a problem with this way: sooner or later the one who setted up the company will retire.. And the one to follow him up will be a (sell appointed) "manager" (ugh I hate to announce that word, a better word would be "leecher"). At that point the headquarters will be putted at some "strategic important" location. - Like in the US. Then after a year or 2-3 the shareholders start demanding more profit (even if the company is making good profit already). And as a manager -who doesn't know anything about the culture the company was started, and doesn't feel any affliction wth the work that is being done- he just sees 2 ways to make money: get more done, or cut in the costs.. Getting more work done isn't possible without risky technological advancements: so the manager (who doesn't want to take risks and pray for 20 years in the future, he only cares about the next 5 years as by then he earned enough to live out his life on the Bahamas) simply starts cutting in the costs..

 

And start "splitting up" (read: destroying everything people build) the company in smaller parts. Without any regard for the people & families behind that company, nor the culture & goals. He will close perfectly profitable parts of the company just so he gets more shortterm profits and earns his bonus from the shareholders. Then after that doesn't make enough money he'll simply move important parts (first the cheap production lines, then the research) to low-cost countries like india. After that he still hasn't enough, his eyes are full of $$$ and he wants more. The last bit of the company is being simply taken away and brought to other countries.. Yet now he sees already a small dip in his profits.. He quikly decides he has done his job very well -he did create lots of profit in the years he was the head- and leaves the company to it's own. -not forgetting his bonus for leaving the company of course-. Now the company starts a downward spiral, and suddenly becomes a victim for an aggressive take over: someone who splits up the company even more.. Decides that thousands of jobs are not making profit (wow who would've guessed, a company is a whole - splitting it up creates just 2 non working parts). And in the end the company is only a sandpiece of the castle it once was.

 

And what does the manager say (of course while smoking a fat cuban sigar in his villa at the bahamas): see my job was very important; while I was there I was making lots of profit, since I left the company has gone down hill.

 

How I love the economic model these days!

[FooK-A-Ji]

he works for the company and so on.

That describes it all..

 

Nowadays it seems a must that everyone needs to be big, and have lots of shareholders..

 

 

There is a problem with this way: sooner or later the one who setted up the company will retire.. And the one to follow him up will be a (sell appointed) "manager" (ugh I hate to announce that word, a better word would be "leecher"). At that point the headquarters will be putted at some "strategic important" location. - Like in the US. Then after a year or 2-3 the shareholders start demanding more profit (even if the company is making good profit already). And as a manager -who doesn't know anything about the culture the company was started, and doesn't feel any affliction wth the work that is being done- he just sees 2 ways to make money: get more done, or cut in the costs.. Getting more work done isn't possible without risky technological advancements: so the manager (who doesn't want to take risks and pray for 20 years in the future, he only cares about the next 5 years as by then he earned enough to live out his life on the Bahamas) simply starts cutting in the costs..

 

And start "splitting up" (read: destroying everything people build) the company in smaller parts. Without any regard for the people & families behind that company, nor the culture & goals. He will close perfectly profitable parts of the company just so he gets more shortterm profits and earns his bonus from the shareholders. Then after that doesn't make enough money he'll simply move important parts (first the cheap production lines, then the research) to low-cost countries like india. After that he still hasn't enough, his eyes are full of $$$ and he wants more. The last bit of the company is being simply taken away and brought to other countries.. Yet now he sees already a small dip in his profits.. He quikly decides he has done his job very well -he did create lots of profit in the years he was the head- and leaves the company to it's own. -not forgetting his bonus for leaving the company of course-. Now the company starts a downward spiral, and suddenly becomes a victim for an aggressive take over: someone who splits up the company even more.. Decides that thousands of jobs are not making profit (wow who would've guessed, a company is a whole - splitting it up creates just 2 non working parts). And in the end the company is only a sandpiece of the castle it once was.

 

And what does the manager say (of course while smoking a fat cuban sigar in his villa at the bahamas): see my job was very important; while I was there I was making lots of profit, since I left the company has gone down hill.

 

How I love the economic model these days!

 

exagerration and watching movies much? jumping to conclusions much?

 

also your example can basically not be applied to this business section. stuff like "moving the production to india" etc. this is Jagex, not Nike.

I don't see how your post has any relevance at all here.

[pulli23]

he works for the company and so on.

That describes it all..

 

Nowadays it seems a must that everyone needs to be big, and have lots of shareholders..

 

 

There is a problem with this way: sooner or later the one who setted up the company will retire.. And the one to follow him up will be a (sell appointed) "manager" (ugh I hate to announce that word, a better word would be "leecher"). At that point the headquarters will be putted at some "strategic important" location. - Like in the US. Then after a year or 2-3 the shareholders start demanding more profit (even if the company is making good profit already). And as a manager -who doesn't know anything about the culture the company was started, and doesn't feel any affliction wth the work that is being done- he just sees 2 ways to make money: get more done, or cut in the costs.. Getting more work done isn't possible without risky technological advancements: so the manager (who doesn't want to take risks and pray for 20 years in the future, he only cares about the next 5 years as by then he earned enough to live out his life on the Bahamas) simply starts cutting in the costs..

 

And start "splitting up" (read: destroying everything people build) the company in smaller parts. Without any regard for the people & families behind that company, nor the culture & goals. He will close perfectly profitable parts of the company just so he gets more shortterm profits and earns his bonus from the shareholders. Then after that doesn't make enough money he'll simply move important parts (first the cheap production lines, then the research) to low-cost countries like india. After that he still hasn't enough, his eyes are full of $$$ and he wants more. The last bit of the company is being simply taken away and brought to other countries.. Yet now he sees already a small dip in his profits.. He quikly decides he has done his job very well -he did create lots of profit in the years he was the head- and leaves the company to it's own. -not forgetting his bonus for leaving the company of course-. Now the company starts a downward spiral, and suddenly becomes a victim for an aggressive take over: someone who splits up the company even more.. Decides that thousands of jobs are not making profit (wow who would've guessed, a company is a whole - splitting it up creates just 2 non working parts). And in the end the company is only a sandpiece of the castle it once was.

 

And what does the manager say (of course while smoking a fat cuban sigar in his villa at the bahamas): see my job was very important; while I was there I was making lots of profit, since I left the company has gone down hill.

 

How I love the economic model these days!

 

exagerration and watching movies much? jumping to conclusions much?

 

also your example can basically not be applied to this business section. stuff like "moving the production to india" etc. this is Jagex, not Nike.

I don't see how your post has any relevance at all here.

 

Nope it's literary what happened here to a company called "philips"..

 

It used to be "our" proud, from this region, where frits philips started his company and let it grow as consumer electronic company.

 

All production parts are already closed down.. And now research is closed.. My father who worked for research about "poly-leds" (polymere leds, which would be able to create bendable screens), suddenly has nothing to work for.. He was leading the research for 20 years already.. But some manager -pushed by the shareholders from especially the US- said it wasn't profitable enough.. And the research part had to stop halfway research (now it's going to production to reap it's benefits now instead of investing in future).

100s of people are loosing there job thanks to this simple action. My father has worked long enough that philips doesn't want to loose him yet, however my father looses something he has worked on for years, something he was proud of. - He could say: hey that was something I made possible! How inhuman is to do that all to strive for better profit especially on short term?

 

 

Ow and don't get me started about GAMMA holding.. Also sold out to some private investors from the US & oil states. It was (and still is) very productive and making profit. Yet the investors want the money back and suddenly 2000 people lose their job next year - where is the humanity? Or the company called "V&D", founded during the golden age.. Yet since around 1980 in foreign hands: and "suddenly" that company has started closing many shops, and is even being sold out for "any price reasonable". - Where is the proudness for such a long history in a company?

 

But this is striving off topic: I just hope jagex can hold their own in this world while it lasts (sooner or later a change has to be made in this *all for money* world. Else in 15 years we'll reach a point where global environment starts becoming poisonous, and we'll break the point where nature will not -easily- restory itself).

[FooK-A-Ji]

he works for the company and so on.

That describes it all..

 

Nowadays it seems a must that everyone needs to be big, and have lots of shareholders..

 

 

There is a problem with this way: sooner or later the one who setted up the company will retire.. And the one to follow him up will be a (sell appointed) "manager" (ugh I hate to announce that word, a better word would be "leecher"). At that point the headquarters will be putted at some "strategic important" location. - Like in the US. Then after a year or 2-3 the shareholders start demanding more profit (even if the company is making good profit already). And as a manager -who doesn't know anything about the culture the company was started, and doesn't feel any affliction wth the work that is being done- he just sees 2 ways to make money: get more done, or cut in the costs.. Getting more work done isn't possible without risky technological advancements: so the manager (who doesn't want to take risks and pray for 20 years in the future, he only cares about the next 5 years as by then he earned enough to live out his life on the Bahamas) simply starts cutting in the costs..

 

And start "splitting up" (read: destroying everything people build) the company in smaller parts. Without any regard for the people & families behind that company, nor the culture & goals. He will close perfectly profitable parts of the company just so he gets more shortterm profits and earns his bonus from the shareholders. Then after that doesn't make enough money he'll simply move important parts (first the cheap production lines, then the research) to low-cost countries like india. After that he still hasn't enough, his eyes are full of $$$ and he wants more. The last bit of the company is being simply taken away and brought to other countries.. Yet now he sees already a small dip in his profits.. He quikly decides he has done his job very well -he did create lots of profit in the years he was the head- and leaves the company to it's own. -not forgetting his bonus for leaving the company of course-. Now the company starts a downward spiral, and suddenly becomes a victim for an aggressive take over: someone who splits up the company even more.. Decides that thousands of jobs are not making profit (wow who would've guessed, a company is a whole - splitting it up creates just 2 non working parts). And in the end the company is only a sandpiece of the castle it once was.

 

And what does the manager say (of course while smoking a fat cuban sigar in his villa at the bahamas): see my job was very important; while I was there I was making lots of profit, since I left the company has gone down hill.

 

How I love the economic model these days!

 

exagerration and watching movies much? jumping to conclusions much?

 

also your example can basically not be applied to this business section. stuff like "moving the production to india" etc. this is Jagex, not Nike.

I don't see how your post has any relevance at all here.

 

Nope it's literary what happened here to a company called "philips"..

 

It used to be "our" proud, from this region, where frits philips started his company and let it grow as consumer electronic company.

 

All production parts are already closed down.. And now research is closed.. My father who worked for research about "poly-leds" (polymere leds, which would be able to create bendable screens), suddenly has nothing to work for.. He was leading the research for 20 years already.. But some manager -pushed by the shareholders from especially the US- said it wasn't profitable enough.. And the research part had to stop halfway research (now it's going to production to reap it's benefits now instead of investing in future).

100s of people are loosing there job thanks to this simple action. My father has worked long enough that philips doesn't want to loose him yet, however my father looses something he has worked on for years, something he was proud of. - He could say: hey that was something I made possible! How inhuman is to do that all to strive for better profit especially on short term?

 

 

Ow and don't get me started about GAMMA holding.. Also sold out to some private investors from the US & oil states. It was (and still is) very productive and making profit. Yet the investors want the money back and suddenly 2000 people lose their job next year - where is the humanity? Or the company called "V&D", founded during the golden age.. Yet since around 1980 in foreign hands: and "suddenly" that company has started closing many shops, and is even being sold out for "any price reasonable". - Where is the proudness for such a long history in a company?

 

But this is striving off topic: I just hope jagex can hold their own in this world while it lasts (sooner or later a change has to be made in this *all for money* world. Else in 15 years we'll reach a point where global environment starts becoming poisonous, and we'll break the point where nature will not -easily- restory itself).

'

You are still overdramatasizing what could happen to Jagex.

Yes those 2 stories are legit. And so what? When has this happened to an online gaming company? Explain to me what profit you could get out of splitting up the different branches of JAGEX. As you probably now realize, your examples have no relevance to this topic. That is my point.

[warren211]

Not a very professional handling of the interview by MMG (regardless if EA and Activision actually used expletives with them, I don't think it's very business-like to quote it). Then again, it's hard to blame the guy for wanting to rub it in the publishers' faces on how they reeled in 140 million users in this day and age, customers that could have belonged to the publishers.