Jagex Ltd, creators of RuneScape, one of the world’s most popular massively multiplayer online games, has signed a landmark deal making WildTangent, Inc. their marketing and exclusive premium advertising sales partner in the US. The advertising deal will draw on WildTangent’s expertise in selling advertising campaigns in and around games. The marketing agreement will enable WildTangent to drive subscriptions of RuneScape through the WildTangent Games Network, a distribution channel reaching over 20 million consumer PCs through major partnerships the leading manufacturers in North America.

RuneScape has experienced explosive growth on a global scale over the past 12 months, surpassing games like The Sims Online, Everquest, and Star Wars Galaxies in monthly subscriptions. The game consistently ranks #1 on search engine buzz* indexes as the most searched for game-related term and has emerged as an underground cultural phenomenon with teens. Predominantly aged 14 – 24, Runescape’s audience exceeds 4 million monthly players in the US and over 9 million globally. To date, the property has remained undiscovered and untouched by advertisers in the US.

“RuneScape is not just a game. It’s an iconic element of youth culture.” Said Alex St John, CEO of WildTangent Inc., “We’re thrilled to be able to offer this legendary game content to our consumers, and we look forward to helping advertisers to gain relevancy with its awesome fanbase.”

“We are pleased to announce this partnership with WildTangent.” Said Constant Tedder, Managing Director of Jagex, the developer and publisher of RuneScape. “They have a long track record of delivering successful gaming campaigns for major advertisers in the US, and as a fellow game publisher we trust that they will protect the integrity of our game while enabling advertisers to effectively reach our valuable audience. WildTangent also enables us to market RuneScape on the desktops over 60% of consumer PCs in the US, which I suspect will grow our market share considerably.”

The WildTangent Games Network boasted more than 500 million game plays in 2005 and expects that number to rise substantially in 2006. The downloadable games market caters to a surprisingly broad audience, from young kids and adults to mainstream and hard-core gamers alike, and the WildTangent multi-genre online games are designed for players of all levels of experience, all ages and all interests.