Jagex has acquired Gamepires, the developer behind SCUM

Jagex, the developer-publisher behind the popular MMO RuneScape, has acquired developer Gamepires.

Gamepires was founded back in 2010, and employs over 50 game developers. It is based in Zagreb, Croatia, and has seen breakout critical and community success with its open world survival game SCUM since 2018. 

Now that they’re a part of Jagex, Gamepires intends for SCUM to both leave Early Access and for it to go multi-platform in the near future. 

“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 Phil Mansell, Jagex CEO. “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.”

“Partnering with Jagex provides us the opportunity to take SCUM to the next level,” said Tomislav Pongrac, creative director and co-founder of Gamepires. “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.”

Jagex did not disclose the transaction’s terms, or how much the acquisition cost overall.