It’s a bit of good news and bad news for those who are interested in the business dealings of RuneScape developer Jagex. First, the good news: 2021 has been another profitable year for the developer as it earned £124M ($143M USD), marking the studio’s seventh year of growth and a 4% profit increase from 2020. The announcement also heralded milestones like RuneScape’s 20th anniversary, an all-time new membership high for the franchise, and Jagex’s acquisition by The Carlyle Group in January.
That referenced milestone segues neatly into the bad news portion: Readers might recall that acquisition of Jagex was challenged by Plutos Sama Holdings, Inc. in a lawsuit that alleges a 2019/2020 sale of the company is part of a money laundering and RICO scheme – a charge that Jagex has denied and a story that ended up being even murkier and wilder than anyone could have imagined. Unfortunately, it looks like we’re not going to be seeing answers to this matter anytime soon, as the court case won’t go to trial until May 2024.
