UPDATED: Jagex Parent Company Sells It Off to a US Equity Investment Group

UPDATE: We have reached out to Jagex and received the following statement:

Fukong’s regulatory statement earlier this year acknowledged that the company was looking to restructure its debt, which has resulted in recent announcements regarding a potential sale, however this remains one of various possible outcomes and is an evolving situation. Jagex has never been in better shape and following five years of record growth, and our focus is to execute our five-year plan built around further investment into the RuneScape franchise, investment in new living games, and working with other studios to publish their living games under our Partners programme.

According to Yicai Global, Chinese mining company, Fukong Interactive Entertainment, is unloading all of its overseas businesses in an effort to reduce its debt load. Fukong has been the owner of RuneScape developer Jagex Studios since 2016. According to the report, Fukong will be selling Jagex to Platinum Equity for $350M in a bid to reduce its debt load. The article further states that Jagex generated 99.5% of Fukong's revenue in 2018.

Unbelievably, Fukong is embroiled in "57 litigation and arbitration cases which were related to financial and credit disputes" totalling $1.2B USD.

The firm is selling the  units in order to obtain funds and repay most of its maturing debts, it  said, adding that after this, Fukong will focus on developing domestic  mobile games.

A quick look at Platinum Equity reveals its portfolio. If the Jagex sale goes through, it will be the first gaming organization within Platinum's collection.

What this means for the future of RuneScape remains to be seen, though given its mammoth share of revenue generation for Fukong, it should continue without a break. 

We have reached out to Jagex for comment and will keep you posted.

Thanks, anonymous tipster!