Jagex now a U.S. company

[Makoto_the_Phoenix]

While revenues were up 2% for Jagex in 2011, both operating and net profits were significantly down from the previous financial year.

Not sure if I should panic.

 

Here's a collection of Jagex's financial statements compiled with Stellar Dawn Central's data (they get their hands on Jagex's financial statements). Some adjustments were made for increase in subscription price but not due to currency inflation. I leave the option of "panic" to you.

 

 

[L2Pullout]

Well maybe if Jagex had released more then one Mmo in 11 years they wouldn't be looking so bad. Its supposed to be their specialty and they seriously can't get another game out yet?

[UltraMantis]

 

USA wins again

[HexiledRazz]

NOOO! Don't give to America! We ruin everything! D:

[Ginger_Warrior]

Well maybe if Jagex had released more then one Mmo in 11 years they wouldn't be looking so bad. Its supposed to be their specialty and they seriously can't get another game out yet?

They released War of Legends and FunOrb. I rest my case.

 

All I can say is StellarDawn must be a vast improvement, because RuneScape won't survive for much longer, perhaps a few years, with current forecasts. I'm sure they'll always keep a version of it open for the die-hard fans to play but as a business exercise it wouldn't be tenable to update regularly any more.

[Ashoke]

Published War of Legends and released and abandoned Funorb*.

 

Fixed.

[chenw]

Not sure if I am looking forward to see what happened to 2011-2012

 

PS what happened in 2008-2009 fiscal year?

[Sylpheed]

Published War of Legends and released and abandoned Funorb*.

 

Fixed.

 

This.

 

There are so many people who don't know the difference between publisher and developer.

[Sy_Accursed]

While revenues were up 2% for Jagex in 2011, both operating and net profits were significantly down from the previous financial year.

Not sure if I should panic.

 

Here's a collection of Jagex's financial statements compiled with Stellar Dawn Central's data (they get their hands on Jagex's financial statements). Some adjustments were made for increase in subscription price but not due to currency inflation. I leave the option of "panic" to you.

 

 

I find those numbers somewhat misleading, in terms of how the average joe would read them. The triangle symbol (difference) is only comparing one year to the previous year so only measures growth compared to prior years. That means anything more than -100% is still growth, sure a negative number isn't ideal but -75% growth compared to the prior year is not quite as bad as the numbers may lead you to believe.

So what if they approx income increased less in year y than it did in year x; it still increased year on year, just growth slowed. Can see from the % columns there has still been some growth.

And this is of course assuming these numbers are anywhere close to accurate.

 

And tbh I can see it turning around for 11-12 and 12-13 anyway. The first two slow growth years tie with the free trade removal, the perk with its return, the later 2 with the bot problem. So there's no reason why the bot nuke shouldn't cause another, hopefully longer lasting, perk to growth rates that might show a little in 11-12, but will certainly show in 12-13.

[Ginger_Warrior]

Do you remember how much Gordon Brown was ridiculed for coining the terms "negative growth" and "zero percent growth"? You're heading there. He also saw a quick turnaround in his own downturn. How's that one going for him?

 

Businesses have to grow in order to survive, you make it sound like breaking even is OK. A 1.85% increase in turnover is bad news when that's barely a quarter of what you were achieving only twelve months ago.

[Sy_Accursed]

But I'm not talking about anything close to that.

I was merely pointing out the triangle columns look at the difference between that year and the prior year, so anything over -100% still shows positive growth.

 

-75% for 10-11 increase turn over, merely shows turnover increased by 75% less than it did in 09-10 not that turnover decreased. Or to put it another way it only grew by 25% of what it did in 09-10.

Eg

So turnover increased by say £100 in 09-10

But only by £25 in 10-11

 

In the triangle symbol column, which shows difference between the two years. That is -75%, but turnover still increased by £25 so there was positive growth, just less of it than the prior year.

 

And I'm certainly not saying there's anything amazing about small growth %, just that the big negative numbers in the triangle columns can be a bit misleading (depending on your knowledge) as what they represent isn't an overall negative.

[Ginger_Warrior]

No one's claiming the company has shrunk. All anyone's said is that the company is growing (yes), but growing at a drastically slower rate than before, which is alarming... No one on this thread so far has been "mislead".

 

Make no mistake though, it's a pretty negative picture. It says the company isn't attracting new customers as well as it once was capable of.

[pulli23]

Do you remember how much Gordon Brown was ridiculed for coining the terms "negative growth" and "zero percent growth"? You're heading there. He also saw a quick turnaround in his own downturn. How's that one going for him?

 

Businesses have to grow in order to survive, you make it sound like breaking even is OK. A 1.85% increase in turnover is bad news when that's barely a quarter of what you were achieving only twelve months ago.

You can't continuasly grow.. At some point you're just destroying earth's resources. There's only 1 organism that uses this mechanism: virusses.

 

A business shouldn't nowadays strive to grow anymore: but instead to stabilize.

[Sy_Accursed]

No one's claiming the company has shrunk. All anyone's said is that the company is growing (yes), but growing at a drastically slower rate than before, which is alarming... No one on this thread so far has been "mislead".

 

Make no mistake though, it's a pretty negative picture. It says the company isn't attracting new customers as well as it once was capable of.

 

I didn't say anyone on the thread was being misleading. I just pointed out the numbers could be misleading if you do not know how to read them and thus offered an explanation of what they actually show.

[Jonanananas]

Well, we've seen a year of the investor's influence on Runescape. More marketing gimmicks sure, but in terms of the game itself and the updates, nothing much has changed. I can't say I'm happy about it either, but I don't think it's as bad as some people make it out to be. The only real issue I could see is that they could try to introduce a cash shop into Runescape, but seeing how Runescape players are very much against that, I doubt it will happen.

[Ashoke]

Well, we've seen a year of the investor's influence on Runescape. More marketing gimmicks sure, but in terms of the game itself and the updates, nothing much has changed. I can't say I'm happy about it either, but I don't think it's as bad as some people make it out to be. The only real issue I could see is that they could try to introduce a cash shop into Runescape, but seeing how Runescape players are very much against that, I doubt it will happen.

 

We've seen a year of the investor's 35% interest influence on Runescape. From now on we'll see the investors 55% interest influence.

 

Whether things will actually change or not remains to be seen. All we can do is hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

[Jonanananas]

Well, we've seen a year of the investor's influence on Runescape. More marketing gimmicks sure, but in terms of the game itself and the updates, nothing much has changed. I can't say I'm happy about it either, but I don't think it's as bad as some people make it out to be. The only real issue I could see is that they could try to introduce a cash shop into Runescape, but seeing how Runescape players are very much against that, I doubt it will happen.

 

We've seen a year of the investor's 35% interest influence on Runescape. From now on we'll see the investors 55% interest influence.

 

Whether things will actually change or not remains to be seen. All we can do is hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

 

Nope...this news is about a year old

 

In fact, it's 89% investor ownership btw, just 55% are from US investors

[BiJay]

Well, we've seen a year of the investor's influence on Runescape. More marketing gimmicks sure, but in terms of the game itself and the updates, nothing much has changed. I can't say I'm happy about it either, but I don't think it's as bad as some people make it out to be. The only real issue I could see is that they could try to introduce a cash shop into Runescape, but seeing how Runescape players are very much against that, I doubt it will happen.

As a F2P I have to disagree. So much has changed during the last year for us. Mod MMG once said "I want to apologise for habitually over-promoting the benefits of membership to our free players. I strongly believe if you love the free game you will equally love the members content and that is sufficient promotion to me." but seeing the growth of advertisements (e.g. the mercenary camp north of Falador) in the game it clearly shows his voice isn't that important anymore in the board of directors. He also said "[free game] isn't merely a demo for the members' version. If anything, we see the members version as an expansion pack for those that really love the game". Seeing how they cut out features of the f2p game (hiscores, free trade for new players) this isn't true anymore. Even on Runefest a JMod said that F2P is neither a demo nor a full game. So under the influence of the new investors F2P got downgraded. That's more than nothing imo.

[codecRS]

investors don't control what updates are released *facepalm*

[BiJay]

investors don't control what updates are released *facepalm*

So you're saying that the board of directors (where 6 of 7 are investors, the other Mod MMG) has nothing to say about what direction the game is going to. Okay, sounds resonable... not.

[Ginger_Warrior]

investors don't control what updates are released *facepalm*

Dunno whether you're a troll or just have no business sense. I'll assume good faith and go with the latter.

[pal2002]

The deal was done quite a while ago now, almost year to date now...and this same blog who also voted rs for some crap awards has to sensationalize this?

 

Whatvers. What interest me more is that jagex has profits down 43% last year. What a great year for those shitty investors. Should've picked another game to ruin and maybe you wouldve made more.

[Cheefoo]

The deal was done quite a while ago now, almost year to date now...and this same blog who also voted rs for some crap awards has to sensationalize this?

 

Whatvers. What interest me more is that jagex has profits down 43% last year. What a great year for those shitty investors. Should've picked another game to ruin and maybe you wouldve made more.

 

Surely you must realise they're spending a lot of resources on developing several new games, such as Stellar Dawn and Transformers Universe. Not to mention their bot genocide definitely made a dent, seeing as many paying members were bots.

[swagcake]

this information means absolutely nothing.

Absolutely nothing?

 

Right when these investors stepped in early last year is when we started to see the introduction of the Refer a Friend, Loyalty Points, in-game items w/game card stuff, etc...

I don't have any experience in the gaming business but I do know something as a recording artist, and that is the people who finance you (your board of directors, your publishing house, your record label) have the final say. If your music isn't poppy enough, isn't metal enough, upbeat enough, etc... guess what? Your music is going to be poppy'er or more upbeat or whatever they want.

 

Control over the direction of your art doesn't just mean something, it means everything.

i agree.

jagex isnt out there to purely satisfy the customers. it's priority is to satisfy investors. so the investors will determine the direction of rs, for the better or for the worse.

[pulli23]

this information means absolutely nothing.

Absolutely nothing?

 

Right when these investors stepped in early last year is when we started to see the introduction of the Refer a Friend, Loyalty Points, in-game items w/game card stuff, etc...

I don't have any experience in the gaming business but I do know something as a recording artist, and that is the people who finance you (your board of directors, your publishing house, your record label) have the final say. If your music isn't poppy enough, isn't metal enough, upbeat enough, etc... guess what? Your music is going to be poppy'er or more upbeat or whatever they want.

 

Control over the direction of your art doesn't just mean something, it means everything.

i agree.

jagex isnt out there to purely satisfy the customers. it's priority is to satisfy investors. so the investors will determine the direction of rs, for the better or for the worse.

Can't you just see the pervesity of this? Customers is king used to be the saying from any company. What happened to the angelsaksian economy that it's now so perverse that only money count?