Old School RuneScape studio Jagex may be best known for their classic MMORPG, but it has just acquired the studio behind gritty survival adventure SCUM.
If you’re an avid Scum fan, this is good news for you. According to the associated press release “Gamepires’ and Jagex’s community-driven approach will enable Scum to realise its full potential with a multi-platform 1.0 release in the future.”
Jagex will also make use of its hive mind on all things community-driven to ensure that Scum thrives post-release. Jagex CEO Phil Mansell states “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.”
Creative director and co-founder of Gamepires Tomislav Pongrac echoes this. “Partnering with Jagex provides us the opportunity to take Scum to the next level,” he states. “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.”
For those unaware, Scum sees players thrust into the guise of prisoners, left alone on an island desperately searching for an escape. Set in Gamepires’ native Croatia, groups of up to 80 players fight for survival on the island, while simultaneously trying to remove the implant preventing their escape.
Released in 2018 the game has sold well over three million copies, and has become a staple in Steam’s Top 100. Given that Scum is a very different game from Old School RuneScape, I can’t wait to see what the studios achieve together.
If you’re an avid fan of Gamepires’ survival game, be sure to check out our list of Scum admin commands and cheats. Or, if you’re new to the game, we have some Scum tips and tricks to get you started.