When GamesIndustry.biz spoke to Jagex’s then-new CEO Jon Bellamy in 2025, he proudly stated that there was nothing improper with the video games agency being referred to as “the RuneScape firm”.
Nicely, that is a lot more official in 2026. The agency’s branding is now Jagex: The RuneScape Firm – and there are a lot of more adjustments to come this 12 months. Talking at a briefing at Jagex’s Cambridge workplaces to media and content material creators, Bellamy stated that the agency was making a a lot larger funding in all issues RuneScape this 12 months.
In truth, the chief government stated that he had gone to the board to beg for “a number of tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars}” more than the corporate has ever spent earlier than. This cash is going into content material creation, as properly areas together with participant assist, anti-cheat, and stay occasions. The RuneFest conference is going to be larger this 12 months, and Jagex is holding its first North American occasion. This all comes because the RuneScape franchise passes £3 billion in lifetime income.
There’s lots driving on Jagex’s 2026, however Bellamy advised attendees on the firm’s briefing that if it will get this 12 months proper, it’s going to be “era-defining,” including that “this shall be our greatest and most bold and most difficult 12 months on report.”
A part of the rationale that Jagex is backing RuneScape to such a level, in accordance to the corporate’s SVP of product, James Dobrokski, is that there are numerous contemporary eyes on the MMO model thanks to its “comparatively new management workforce” and new homeowners, CVC Capital and Haveli.
“When you might have a change like that, it forces you to ask whether or not you might be doing the proper factor,” Dobrowski tells GamesIndustry.biz.
“Is the technique we’ve got the right one? Are we approaching our future in the best way we would like to method it? We spent numerous time early final 12 months taking a look at what we had been doing, asking ourselves in the event that they’re the proper issues and making numerous adjustments by way of firm technique, and the way that pertains to particular person product and venture methods.”
Back to fundamentals
When it comes to the RuneScape model as a complete, it is the retro-themed Previous College RuneScape that has been stealing the present for a while now; the sport retains breaking subscription and concurrent person information, whereas the trendy RuneScape has been much less well-liked.
Jagex admits that it has made some missteps with trendy RuneScape over time. In 2026, the corporate is embarking on what it calls an “integrity roadmap,” dubbed The Highway to Restoration, which can, amongst different issues, see the studio tweak the MMO’s visuals to be more constant, as well as to making adjustments to sport steadiness and modernising fight. That is on high of a UI and UX overhaul to make the sport much less intimidating, with the purpose of bringing back lapsed customers and attracting new ones.
A lot of the ethos that Jagex is approaching RuneScape with in 2026 is impressed by the success it has had with Previous College.
“One of many questions to arrest ourselves is what essentially RuneScape’s DNA is. What’s helped us achieve success?” Dobrowski says.
“It boils down to a couple of issues. All the things from the IP to the whimsical nature of the journey that RuneScape delivers is quintessentially British. However more than that, it is the very shut relationship we’ve got with our group and the best way we work with it on just about every part we do.
“We determined final 12 months that it was vital for RuneScape to return to that DNA. The integrity technique is largely to return to that primordial DNA, to strip back issues that we’ve got added. Typically, I believe, we have chased a few of our competitors or adopted developments. We wish to do what we do greatest and be authentically RuneScape once more. With the integrity roadmap, we’re altering the sunshine bulbs, fixing the streets, and getting the sport back to what it must be.”
“All the things from the IP to the whimsical nature of the journey that RuneScape delivers is quintessentially British”
There’s an attention-grabbing comment in Dobrowski’s final reply that does give some indication to why the present management believes RuneScape ended up because it is – that Jagex at occasions regarded in the direction of exterior inspiration for the place the sport’s future lies. That prompt an organization shedding confidence in itself, however beneath this new method, it seems like Jagex has a clearer image of what RuneScape is, one thing mirrored by a change within the voices guiding improvement.
“[The company] began to take a look at what different video games had been doing and employed more individuals who had labored at different studios. They joined with their very own preconceptions of what works and what we must always do,” says Dobrowski, who himself joined Jagex in 2025, having beforehand labored on the likes of Playground Video games, Mediatonic, CCP, and Sharkmob.
“There have been a bunch of long-term gamers who joined Jagex as a result of they had been deeply passionate and simply needed to work on RuneScape. They did not actually have as a lot of a inventive voice within the workforce as they need to have accomplished. Partly, I believe, as a result of we introduced in folks from exterior Jagex who had actual credibility, and regarded to them for the longer term. We have been rebalancing that. We nonetheless have folks on the workforce who’ve been there, accomplished that elsewhere, however there is a a lot higher voice from our hardcore RuneScape folks. They simply have a sense of what RuneScape must be. We’ll nonetheless validate, stress check and work with the group to be sure that these emotions are proper, however we’re main from the guts once more in a approach that I do not assume we’ve got accomplished for fairly some years.”
So lengthy, microtransactions
One other main determination relating to RuneScape is the elimination of Treasure Hunter, the sport’s gacha-based microtransaction (MTX) mechanic. That was axed on January 19, 2026, following a public ballot.
This got here within the wake of Jagex group analysis, which discovered that “over 80%” of respondents stated they’d stopped enjoying due to Treasure Hunter.
In 2024 – the latest 12 months for which Jagex has filed accounts with Firms Home – the agency reported £23 million in MTX income. That is simply 15% of the studio’s complete income for the 12 months. Subscriptions, in the meantime, clocked in at £118.5 million, representing 78% of Jagex’s 2024 income.
Taking away the MTX income stream comes with threat, however Jagex is hoping it might carry gamers back.
“We’re clearly going to take a income hit as a result of we have eliminated that huge MTX system, however, if we do the proper factor in different elements of the sport, membership ought to begin to elevate up once more,” Dobrowski explains. “We might a lot slightly find yourself in a state of affairs like Previous College, the place most of our income comes from subscription charges, as a result of individuals are loving what they’re seeing and enjoying.”
Jagex will nonetheless be promoting cosmetics and bonus XP boosts, which give gamers more expertise factors for his or her duties, as straight-up purchases.
“[Selling] cosmetics is quite common throughout the business. However we would like to have a really clear worth proposition with common releases of latest cosmetics that gamers should purchase,” Dobrowski says. “The opposite piece is bonus XP. The concept is that it lets people who find themselves extremely busy with their lives, comparatively time poor, nonetheless really feel like they’ll play RuneScape with out being pushed to one aspect.”
Alongside RuneScape, Jagex additionally launched survival sport Dragonwilds into Steam Early Entry in 2025. The title beat expectations and has bought north of 1.1 million items to date. It clearly has an viewers, though the make-up of it is not apparent.
Previous College RuneScape caters to those that need to play the MMO in its 2007 glory days, whereas RuneScape is for individuals who may desire a more trendy expertise. Dragonwilds, in the meantime, sits in a wierd place. It is a RuneScape sport, however it’s additionally a survival sport, a separate though extremely well-liked style.
“Once we did our Early Entry final 12 months, we had been actually positively slightly bit stunned however very blissful at what number of RuneScape gamers got here to play the sport,” Dobrowski says.
“We wish to do more for these gamers. Comparable to our different video games, we would like to work very carefully with the Dragonwilds group to construct the sport for them. We ask ourselves lots how a lot we lean into RuneScape, and the way a lot we lean into the survival viewers. We imagine there is a terrific sport that may serve each audiences. We’ll pull some folks into RuneScape, who simply need to respect and benefit from the style after which fall in love with the franchise, and people who find themselves already loving the franchise that need to see it by way of a special medium.”
“Success shall be measured in how the group feels”
A pivotal 12 months lies forward, however the firm’s grand plans do not finish in 2026.
“I might love to see the franchise as a complete persevering with to develop,” Dobrowski says. “Previous College is already doing properly there, however this is our greatest roadmap within the sport’s historical past. For RuneScape, we’d love the group to really feel pleased with the sport they’re enjoying and for our workers and our workforce to really feel pleased with what they ship. We wish to totally rejuvenate RuneScape and for folks to really feel assured that it has a really brilliant future forward of it. Success shall be measured in how the group feels. We’ll even be releasing Dragonwilds later this 12 months, so we’ve got to carry RuneScape to a complete new viewers.”
“Personally, 2027 shall be larger than 2026, so I’ve received numerous work to do to put together for that as properly.”
Disclaimer: Alex Forbes-Calvin is a contract author who has labored beforehand labored with Jagex, together with on the guide RuneScape: The First 20 Years.