mark-gerhard
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Jagex CEO resigning in December
Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard is leaving his post in December according to an open letter on the RuneScape website. Gerhard writes passionately about the game's community and his efforts to combat gold-farming during his five-year stint as CEO. Gerhard, who has been with Jagex a total of seven years, did not specify the reasons for his departure nor who will take his place.
Transformers Universe launches open beta for the 4th of July
The Transformers Universe MOBA, whose first beta event kicked off last March, will formally enter open beta this weekend because nothing says Independence Day like battle robots, am I right? The open beta weekend will be marked by a double experience event, a 24-hour livestream starting at 11 a.m. EDT on July 5th, and "$75,000 in prizes to be won." In a press release issued today, Jagex CEO/CTO Mark Gerhard said the game had seen almost two million battle victories during the span of the closed beta. [Source: Jagex press release]
Transformers Universe delivers trailer
Yesterday we learned that Transformers Universe is no longer going to be an MMO, but a "MOTA" (massively online, tactical action game) instead. And delivering on CEO Mark Gerhard's promise that fans would see more about the game from here on out, Jagex has released a new trailer. Check out the action of Autobots and Decepticons battling it out in the clip below. The game, slated for release this summer, is accepting beta sign ups now. [Source: Jagex press release]
Transformers Universe now a 'MOTA,' set for summer release
The last we heard about Jagex's development of Transformers Universe was in July of 2013 when it was announced that 13 employees had been laid off from the game's development team. Today, however, Jagex CEO and CTO Mark Gerhard announced some big news regarding the would-be Transformers MMO. Specifically, he announced that... it's not exactly an MMO anymore. Transformers Universe is now being called a "massively online, tactical action game, or MOTA," and Gerhard states that it offers "fast-paced, battle centric, tactical action with a selection of game modes for core gamers, casual gamers, and Transformers enthusiasts alike." All the nitty-gritty gameplay details can be found in the official post, but Gerhard specifically addresses the studio's long radio silence, stating that "from today onwards [fans] can expect regular updates, and soon all start participating first-hand" in the game's ongoing development. He mentions that the studio is "100% set to launch Transformers Universe this summer" and that they will be progressively inviting registered players into the game's beta testing. To get all the full details on this new "MOTA" or to sign up for beta, head over to the Transformers Universe official site.
Jagex upgrades RuneScape infrastructure after DDoS attacks
If you've been experiencing disconnections or prolonged lag while trying to play RuneScape lately, it's probably not just you. Service disruptions have been ongoing for "over a year now," according to a post on the game's official website. Jagex and its browser-based fantasy title have been "the target of numerous DDoS attacks," CEO Mark Gerhard writes. The motives "tie closely with removal of bots and gold farming," Gerhard says, before explaining that Jagex has just "made a multi-million pound investment" in IT infrastructure upgrades and is also working with global law enforcement "to bring the people responsible for these attacks to justice."
New membership currency introduced to RuneScape to help fight gold farming
You don't need to pay money to enjoy RuneScape on a monthly basis, but you certainly get a bit more out of the game with a subscription. But would you prefer to use some of your vast in-game fortune to pay for that membership? You can do that now thanks to the introduction of Bonds, a new item that can be purchased for $5 a pop and then traded or sold in the game itself. When used, Bonds can be redeemed for 14 days of play time, eight Squeal of Fortune spins, or 160 RuneCoins. You can also redeem them for RuneFest tickets (although it takes more than one Bond for that). In a video from Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard, the genesis of Bonds is explained -- this is the latest step in the game's long-standing battle with gold farming accounts, offering players more control over membership costs while cutting out the need to pay money to third parties. So spend cash on improving your in-game fortune or spend your in-game fortune to save some cash, it's up to you. [Source: Jagex press release]
Jagex introduces RuneScape bonds, new business model
Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard has posted a new video to the RuneScape website detailing the fantasy MMO's new business model. The clip, which runs a bit over three minutes in length, focuses on Jagex's efforts to eradicate goldfarmers from the long-running browser-based title. Gerhard mentions that the firm has removed over 3,700,000,000,000 GP from goldfarmer accounts and banned more than 1.1 million bot accounts this year alone. Despite those "signifcant blows, gold farming continues to survive," Gerhard explains. He also says that 40 to 50 percent of the game's active playerbase buys gold "on any given month!" The solution to what is clearly a thorn in Jagex's side is something called RuneScape bonds. Bonds are a tradeable membership item that can freely gifted or traded for any other tradeable in-game item. As a result, players will be able to pay for their game memberships via in-game wealth and gold farmers will theoretically have no customers. The bonds update will also include a gold-sink designed to help the economy recover from extreme inflation. Full details are available via the video after the cut and the links below. [Thanks Caio!]
Jagex boasts best financial year ever
Jagex has announced today that the company has had its most successful year to date, earning £50 million for the first time in the studio's history. In addition, the largest independent game studio in the UK employs a staff of over 550 people with the potential to grow even further. "2013 is set to be an even bigger year for Jagex as we release the biggest update in RuneScape's history, launch Transformers Universe and publish a number of new titles." CEO Mark Gerhard pointed out in a press release this morning. The studio's flagship title, RuneScape, saw "tens of millions of new players enter the game for the first time during 2012," solidifying the classic MMO as a free-to-play powerhouse. [Source: Jagex press release]
RuneScape coming to tablets this year
RuneScape 3 is an ambitious project, especially for an MMO series as old as RuneScape's, but Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard told IGN in a recent interview that they're ready to take the wildly popular MMO to the next level. This not only means the previously announced change from a Java-based platform to HTML5, but it also means that the game will be coming to tablets by Q4 of this year. Gerhard also added that the possibility of a smartphone connection is there as well, but only as an addition to the overall game experience. Where else can Jagex go from here? Smart TVs? Consoles? Both are possibilities, according to Gerhard.
RuneScape 3 to offer all-new experience
With twelve years already under its belt, and a good chunk of those years providing weekly updates, it's understandable if new players might consider RuneScape literally too big to get into. So how do you circumvent this and continue to expand the population base? Why, you throw in a major update and rename the game to RuneScape 3, of course! In a recent interview, Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard talked to Gamasutra about how this exact approach gives the game an all-new feel that is more likely to draw in new players who might otherwise overlook it. He stated, "We could have called it RuneScape Next Age if we wanted to, and part of my thinking was, for people who haven't played this game in a year, it's going to be night and day. It's not a completely new game, but it's certainly a new experience." RuneScape 3 will have a more powerful audio engine, boosted visuals and a better draw distance, and upgrades to the UI, among other things. Just like back with RuneScape 2, the plan is to maintain the RuneScape 3 moniker for a while, then drop the numeral and return to the original name again.
Old-school RuneScape early access starts today
Those old-school RuneScape servers we told you about earlier this week are launching an early access period today. The shards will revisit the title as it was in late 2007, a window that Jagex says is "heralded as one of the defining periods of the game by its players." The firm is opening up a voting period through which players will decide how much developer investment should be devoted to old-school RuneScape going forward. The options range from a basic service with critical maintenance to a full dev team that will iterate based on player input. Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard notes that this isn't the first time his company has left major decisions in the hands of its users. In 2011, RuneScape's Free Trade and Wilderness mechanics were reintroduced to the game following a player poll. "Our players' dedication, passion, feedback, and enthusiasm all provide the compass, energy, and satisfaction that powers Jagex," he said. Jagex says that over 250,000 votes were cast in the old-school poll. [Source: Jagex press release]
Jagex announces new account security for RuneScape
Account security is a pretty big deal. Because it's a pretty big deal, Jagex has created the Jagex Account Guardian (J.A.G.) to help RuneScape players to better manage and defend their own security. Players can use the J.A.G. to connect specific trusted devices with their accounts for an extra line of defense. After the J.A.G. has been enabled on an account, any attempts to play from an untrusted device will require the user to go through additional steps of verification. Mark Gerhard, CEO of Jagex, says that "Ensuring the integrity and security of our valued community's information has always been a top priority," and adds that Jagex is taking the responsibility of protecting players' investments very seriously. [Source: Jagex press release]
RuneScape throwing the Queen a royal celebration on June 2nd
Royalty is coming to RuneScape on June 2nd, as Jagex is celebrating the Queen of England's Diamond Jubilee (that's 60 years on the throne, if you're wondering). Players in the game will be invited to join in a massive block party that will include sampling British cuisine, solving clues, petting the Queen's Corgis, and collecting numerous treasures scattered throughout the Royal city of Varrock. There's even a giant Queen Black Dragon to be defeated, but be warned: She's one of the toughest mobs in the game. This celebration is partially in response to the honor (honour) that the Queen gave the studio in April of this year, as Jagex was granted the Queen's Award for Innovation in Enterprise. "We thought it was only appropriate to return our appreciation and admiration by immortalising the Queen's monumental 60-year achievement by providing an online platform for hundreds of millions of people around the world to come together," said CEO Mark Gerhard. "Friends and family will share in the fun and celebrations of this very special day celebrating her Diamond Jubilee, by hosting what may be the first, but certainly will be the world's largest, virtual street party." If you're wondering if the Queen will be there, well, Jagex did extend an invitation. You can watch the Jubilee Celebration trailer after the jump. [Source: Jagex press release]
Jagex pauses Stellar Dawn's development
Word to the wise: Don't put "dawn" into any part of your MMO's name, or else it will get hit by the curse of breaking dawn. Just ask Dawntide, DAWN, and now, Stellar Dawn. Yes, unfortunately it's true. Jagex announced that it's suspending development on Stellar Dawn to make sure the company is in the best position possible by concentrating on Transformers Universe and RuneScape. While the studio was able to shuffle most of Stellar Dawn's team around to new positions, the decision still resulted in the loss of 12 jobs. In a prepared statement, CEO Mark Gerhard was highly complimentary of Stellar Dawn's team and progress. "Jagex has always been committed to developing the highest quality games and services. This is not a decision we have taken lightly; the Stellar Dawn team has achieved a great deal developing the game and should rightly be proud of their achievements so far." Stellar Dawn fans might find hope in the language being used by the team in the forum announcement, as the title's development is described as being "paused" and a "temporary move" instead of being outright cancelled.
Jagex CEO predicts the imminent demise of physical game retailers
Brick-and-mortar outlets, be warned: your days are numbered. Or so says Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard, who told an audience at BAFTA Question Time that physical retailers were living on borrowed time -- and that before long, such stores would be "museum pieces." Gerhard says that these retailers, such as UK's GAME, will be gone within a decade. "The writing has been on the wall for quite some time," he said. "I think, 10 years out from now, we'll be talking about [physical] retail nostalgically, as a museum piece." He sees this as a positive development for the industry, saying that retailers take a slice of profits away from studios and make it hard for indie games to succeed. "People are still playing games. They're still doing business; they're just doing it in a different place. If you don't adapt you die. It's as simple as that," he said.
Jagex wins court case against RuneScape botters
Jagex Games Studio is trumpeting its legal victory against Mark and Eric Snellman. The brothers formed a company called Impulse Software, which now owes Jagex unspecified damages following a two-year legal battle concerning macro and botting tools for the company's RuneScape MMO. The brothers have been muzzled as a result of an injunction, and they are forbidden from discussing Jagex, RuneScape, or the lawsuit. Additionally, the pair must relinquish "all websites, domains, source code and customer details to Jagex along with all the details of all those individuals who have developed scripts for iBOT and sold or re-sold those scripts," according to a company press release. Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard vowed to protect RuneScape users from similar threats in the future. "We have spared no expense fighting this case, as demonstrated by the seven figure bill this action has cost, but the point of this and other cases of its kind is that we will continue bring to justice those who set out to harm the game or our beloved community. We are delighted to say that we have convincingly neutered them after a very long battle," he said. Jagex also says that its "Bot Nuke" operation, which began in October and includes a suite of code obfuscation tools, has rendered 98% of RuneScape bots obsolete. [Source: Jagex press release]
'Staunchly British' Jagex sets the record straight about its new ownership
Jagex doesn't take kindly to being called an American company these days, it appears. In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, CEO Mark Gerhard set the record straight about the recently reported deal that put the British game studio under the purview of an American investment firm. Because the deal was made earlier last year, Gerhard sees this as old news and stressed that the company was trucking on much the same as it ever was. "The insinuation that this is a company that somehow now is run by bankers in the US again couldn't be further from the truth," he said. "Sure we therefore have some American shareholders, but the management and the culture and the ethos and everything else is the same people, in the same hands, and staunchly British." He also clarified why the studio's profits were reported to be down: "If you look at our company's house filings, revenues are up but profits are down, and those aren't because we're doing a crap job, that's because we're consciously taking those profits and ploughing them back into the business." Gerhard said that the company was "very, very selective" when it came to investors, and that it feels completely comfortable with the current board of directors. He said that the new investors were not interfering with the day-to-day development and operations of Jagex's ever-expanding library of titles: "I'm very excited for the year ahead and everyone in the studio is very focused on, not just making RuneScape and 8Realms a financial success, but our work on Stellar Dawn and even Transformers coming together to make truly great games for this year."
Free for All: The real damage of botting, in the words of a botter
I received an interesting email from someone the other day, someone who wanted to let me in on the lifestyle of a botter. Frankly I was a little embarrassed for the guy since he seemed to believe me to be naive about the entire process. The truth is that I have met plenty of shady characters and heard stories that would make your eyes bug out of your head. I've heard these stories from the developers and players themselves. There truly is some nasty stuff going on in MMO gaming. The saddest thing is that cheaters honestly think that what they do cannot possibly result in much harm for the game they are botting in, cheating at, or hacking up. It's sad because the truth is that a cheater, as one person, might not have much of an impact on the game. Add up several thousands of these scam artists and the results are mindboggling. Drive by your local dump to see just how much trash can pile up, one person at a time. I want to shine some light on just how damaging botting can be. Click past the cut.
RuneScape dev panel highlights incredible success of bot bans
Over the past few weeks, we've heard a great deal about browser MMO RuneScape's struggle against botting and RMT. The bot problem has become progressively worse over the past year, with bot makers countering every change developers made to stop their bots from working. This week developer Jagex celebrated bot-nuking day as it deployed a massive update designed to permanently stop all of the popular reflection and injection bots from working. At this year's annual RuneFest event, Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard presented a fantastic insider panel on the facts and figures behind bot-nuking day. Mark explained the company's position -- that normal players botting to speed up gameplay was counter to the goals of RuneScape. "We don't want your computer to play with our computer," he told attendees, "we want you to have fun with our community." Before delving into facts and figures, Mark reminded attendees of the element of unfairness that bots create. "I want to know that if I'm putting in 30 minutes this evening, that that 30 minutes is equal to everyone else's 30 minutes." Want to know how many million accounts were banned since bot-nuking day? Read on for a summary of the facts and figures from the talk and to watch the full video in HD.
Jagex CEO hints at why RuneScape hasn't come to consoles
Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard is one of the more quotable head honchos in the gaming business, and he didn't disappoint at the recent Edinburgh Interactive conference. Gerhard spoke in no uncertain terms about the difficulties inherent in bringing Jagex's long-running RuneScape browser MMO to game consoles like the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. The problem according to Gerhard? Microsoft and Sony. "They said 'we cannot let the Microsoft community play with the Sony community,''' he explained, before offering his response and an explanation as to why RuneScape has yet to appear on a console. "We're not going to frame our community into boxes just for a few million more customers. Of course I'd love a few million more customers, but I just wouldn't do it [...] you almost become the disease you're trying to solve."
