Geoff Iddison

Geoff Iddison is a former Chief Executive of Jagex, having replaced Constant Tedder in 2007. He also is one of the people who signed the prized copies of Betrayal at Falador, awarded to ten people who pre-ordered the book.

He was succeeded by Mark Gerhard on the 1 February 2009.

Before Jagex


Iddison qualified with a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics & Electronics from the University of East Anglia, where he graduated in 1984. He then worked as Head of Product Development in Research & Development at Crosfield Electronics until January 1991, when he joined I.P.S. Ltd. as Managing Director. In December 1995, he joined Christie's Inc. as chief operating officer (COO), and remained there until May 1999.

In May 2000, he joined eBay. They purchased PayPal on the 3 October 2002, and he subsequently became CEO of PayPal Europe Ltd. in August or November 2003. He remained there until July 2007, and subsequently joined Jagex.

Joining Jagex
Jagex's press release announced his appointment on the 23 October 2007, but some sources claim that he had joined Jagex in August.

Record of involvement
Iddison's leadership saw many of Jagex's controversies, including the removal of the old-style Wilderness in December 2007 and the introduction of the trade limit in January 2008. However, it has also seen the appearance of new features such as the Grand Exchange in November 2007 and RuneScape High Detail in July 2008, as well as the launch of FunOrb in February 2008.

Although Iddison confirmed in May 2008 that he intended to expand the RuneScape player base into parts of Asia (specifically Malaysia and India) and Eastern Europe, this never came to fruition during his time with Jagex. He said: "Jagex is an internet business, but it's like a start-up. It reminds me of the very early days of eBay when I joined in 2000 and similarly with PayPal when eBay purchased it. That experience of taking a business from start-up to being a worldwide player is the business experience I'm be bringing to Jagex."

He also revealed that Jagex is working on another game by saying: "My focus for the first two years of my time at Jagex will be... to bring in more games offerings to boost the portfolio. FunOrb is the first fruits of that but we have a massive year planned." Additionally, he said: "We've got a very, very big investment into another MMO." He calls this game "NextScape", though it is also known as "MechScape". It is scheduled for release in Europe and the United States at the same time, but the release date is not currently known.

He said that RuneScape "has 10 years of good growth", but that "the game is going to come and go." He confirmed that he did intend still to be investing in RuneScape in five years. However, Iddison's successor, Mark Gerhard, said in February 2009: "We will never stop developing and improving RuneScape regardless of the success of our other games... In 5 to 10 years I see RuneScape as the biggest, most epic game in the world! RuneScape was our first born and we will always love it."

Resignation
Iddison resigned from Jagex in January 2009, for unspecified reasons. Based on the ambiguity about exactly when he joined Jagex, he worked for the company for 15 to 17 months, though Andrew Gower is quoted as saying that it was 18 months.

However, in an interview published in May 2009, his successor Mark Gerhard commented on what he perceived as the problem with Iddison's approach, which he thought was being too concerned with making money. This was both through constantly encouraging free players to pay the membership fee, and by employing the most lucrative forms of advertising (namely video advertisements). He described this as "simply wrong, not in the spirit of the free game, absolutely wrong".

Gerhard had said when he took over as CEO in February that video ads "generate significantly more revenue than other adverts", but that they were "annoying to the point it was putting [free players] off playing", which is why he scrapped them immediately.