International game company Jagex, the developer of Runescape, has announced the acquisition of American Pipeworks Studio. This is Jagex's first purchase of a third party studio.

Pipeworks is an Oregon-based studio with over 200 employees. It has released about 120 games, one of the latest being The Walking Dead: Last Mile, which was created in collaboration with Genvid and launched earlier this year.

Jagex noted that it is interested in growth in North America after it was acquired by investment company The Carlyle Group in 2021 for $530 million.

Pipeworks Studio CEO Lindsey Gupton noted that developers will be given access to a community-driven game creation platform.

Jagex CEO Phil Mansell said that Pipeworks is strong in PC/Console Games-as-a-Service development, has been delivering high quality games for decades and has a profitable growing business. “This means that the Jagex family now has even more development opportunities, more diversified revenue, and a properating presence, all of which help us in our quest to become a leader in community-driven games,” he stressed.

Jagex also announced that it is working on a new Unreal Engine 5 game and plans to expand the Runescape universe.

In 2012, the number of Runescape users who registered in the game exceeded 200 million, and in 2008 it was included in the Guinness Book of Records as the most popular free-to-play MMORPG in the world. The game later received another nomination for the most software updates.

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