Jagex Acquires Croatian Indie Developer And SCUM Creator Gamespires
Jagex continues to expand its global presence with its acquisition of Croatian indie studio Gamespires just a few months after the British video game company acquired Oregon-based developer Pipeworks Studios. Gamespires is the studio behind online multiplayer survival game SCUM which launched into early access on Steam back in 2018.
“Jagex, known for the success of its RuneScape franchise, will use its deep expertise in community-driven games and its platform as an international publisher to accelerate SCUM as a leading open world survival title,” reads the official press release. Gamespires’ expertise with survival games should also help accelerate development on Jagex’s upcoming RuneScape-themed addition to the genre.
“Partnering with Jagex provides us the opportunity to take SCUM to the next level,” said Scum Creative Director and Gamespires co-founder Tomislav Pongrac. “Jagex’s world-class reputation as a company where players drive game development matches our ethos and will help us grow as entrepreneurs and as a studio. We’re extremely excited to see how we can build on everything we’ve achieved with SCUM so far and take the game to its full potential.”
“Building game communities is the lifeblood of what we do at Jagex, and this shared passion is why we're delighted to welcome Gamepires into the fold,” said Jagex CEO Phil Mansell. “We believe in the vision of Tomislav, Andrej and their talented team who've built an impressive open world survival game, cultivated a highly engaged community and grown a strong profitable business. With our backing and the support of our Jagex Partners publishing team, together we will make SCUM an even greater global success.”
SCUM was originally scheduled to move out of early access back in September but has obviously been delayed for some reason or other. The game, however, has sold over 3 million copies since its early access release and is consistently on Steam’s 100 Most Played Games list.
