Joystiq

Jagex hires Rockstar's Alex Horton as Chief Creative Officer

Jordan Mallory — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 12:00:00 EST

Alex Horton, an ex-Rockstar animator and designer whose resume includes Manhunt, Grand Theft Auto 3 and Red Dead Revolver, is now Chief Creative Officer at Jagex, the Cambridge developer most known for its free-to-play MMO RuneScape. Horton's position allows him oversight on the creative direction of every project in development at Jagex, and it's his responsibility to "ensure all of our games achieve their true mass market potential," according to CEO Mark Gerhard.

We give it three months before Horton's mental facilities are questioned due to his propensity towards conversing with dust-specks. What's that? Different Horton? Oh, this guy should be fine then.

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Jagex hires Rockstar's Alex Horton as Chief Creative Officer originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 15 Jan 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jagex CEO says Runescape will be cross-console, free-to-play (or else)

Jessica Conditt — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 16:30:00 EST

Developer Jagex is positioned to ship Runescape across all consoles, free-to-play and with complete cross-platform capabilities, if CEO Mark Gerhard has anything to say about it. Which, as CEO, he does. Gerhard told Develop that some console owners wanted to charge for Runescape, which he sees as absolute lunacy. "People get this for free. You're shooting yourself in the foot," Gerhard said. "But Sony was ahead of the game; they said they get it. They understand free. But all three said, 'okay, but we won't let our console play online with any other.'"

Gerhard is waiting for the console market to realize cross-play is a universally beneficial strategy, at least with Runescape, as it doesn't have any graphical aspects that favor one console over another. "I think they [Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo] will open up their platforms a bit more, liberate them a bit more. It's just a matter of time," he said. "But we're well placed to be on all devices soon so we can have a global community."

Jagex CEO says Runescape will be cross-console, free-to-play (or else) originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 28 Aug 2011 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Transformers MMO taking form at RuneScape dev

Randy Nelson — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 13:02:00 EST

UK-based Jagex is hopeful that it has the touch to make a successful Transformers MMO outside of Japan. The developer of browser-based fantasy MMO RuneScape has worked out a deal with Hasbro which will see its game released in North America, Europe, Latin America, Australia and New Zealand sometime in 2012.

There's little to go on beyond Jagex CEO Mark Gerard's promise that the title will be "dynamic and action-packed" -- and no word if it'll be based on the classic G1 Transformers or any of its subsequent iterations (or even the Bayformers).

Asia is getting its own, separate Transformers MMO from China's NetDragon. It's slated to roll out there this year.

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Transformers MMO taking form at RuneScape dev originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 14 Mar 2011 13:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MMO developers sound off about World of Warcraft's dominance

Griffin McElroy — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 23:00:00 EST

We remember a time when every young buck coming out of the MMO development stables would puff up its cheeks and proudly proclaim itself "The World of Warcraft-killer." However, the industry's a bit older and wiser now, and massive online game devs are at peace with the fact that they'll never catch up to Blizzard's irrationally lucrative MMORPG. A handful of these developers recently spoke to MCV about how it feels to compete with an unstoppable juggernaut. (In short: Not awesome.)

Even in an MMO-heavy year which will see the introduction of Star Trek Online, APB, Final Fantasy XIV and others, Jagex COO Rob Smith thinks 2010's online games "are unlikely to topple the likes of World of Warcraft from their throne, at least in the short term." He's probably right -- unless, of course, 2010 is the year that the FarmVille MMO which we all totally know is going to happen actually happens.

MMO developers sound off about World of Warcraft's dominance originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 27 Jan 2010 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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PalTalk takes patent infringement suit on the road, sues MMO devs

Griffin McElroy — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 23:00:00 EST

PalTalk Holdings is feeling pretty zesty following its legal victory over Microsoft this past March, so it's decided to take its patent infringement suit against a few major players in the MMO market. Turbine, Sony, Activision Blizzard, Jagex and NCSoft are all staring down the barrel of PalTalk's litigation cannon -- which, after forcing Microsoft to come to a settlement earlier this year, now has a substantial amount of precedent supporting it.

PalTalk purchased two patents from a company called HearMe in 2002 for technology which shares data between networked computers, allowing users to see the same virtual space as they interact with one another in real time. One could construe that to mean PalTalk owns the patent on online multiplayer altogether -- but we're sure Activision's beefy legal team will have a few arguments to the contrary up its sleeve.

PalTalk takes patent infringement suit on the road, sues MMO devs originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 16 Sep 2009 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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