Jagex are buying the Scum devs

Cambridge-based Runescape publisher Jagex have announced they’ve acquired Gamepires, the devs behind open-world survival sandbox Scum. The deal was made for an undisclosed amount. Both companies said they’re now looking to work together to “accelerate Scum”, and release it in 1.0 across multiple platforms in the future.

Gamepires, founded in 2010, launched Scum into early access on Steam in 2018, and the game’s still doing pretty well for itself in concurrent player counts. Scum’s sold more than 3 million copies in that time, and is sitting around the middle of Steam’s Top 100 most played games. “Partnering with Jagex provides us the opportunity to take Scum to the next level,” said Gamepires’ creative director and co-founder Tomislav Pongrac.

Fraser Brown took Scum’s survival sandbox for a spin back at its early access launch. “Scum’s wall of data is mesmerising,” he said. “From the moment I arrived on the island, every spare second, and even seconds I couldn’t spare, was dedicated to staring at it. The readings and statistics told me everything I needed to know about my body, from how many teeth I had left to when I should squeeze out a big poo. It’s immensely convenient, but like so many human advancements, from ploughing fields to social media, it can take over your life.”

Scum is available on Steam for £28/$35/€30. I don’t think I’ve ever typed the word scum this much before, which is probably a good thing.