Develop take a look at the commercial success of RS: Jagex - a 'poster boy' for a world without publishers?
More information.The article, written by analyst Nick Gibson adds: "As an online games business, Jagex’s business model is very dissimilar to traditional computer and video games developers.
Its principal business partners are not games publishers but hosting and bandwidth companies, payment service providers, advertisers and distribution companies. Jagex operates with the sort of creative and commercial autonomy that most other developers could only dream of. It remains one of the quietest and least publicised developers in the UK (a stance taken deliberately by its management team).
"In addition to being one of the most profitable, Jagex is also the UK’s largest independent developer by staff level, and one of the biggest employers. Its commercial model should make it a poster boy for the disintermediation of publishers and the ‘direct to consumer’ distribution channel in which so many developers place their hopes."
Read the full profile here.