Jagex is hitting pause on its plan to reboot RuneScape. In a post titled “Reignited: Where We Go From Here”, published on Tuesday, October 6, the studio opened with a blunt admission: “We are re-evaluating RuneScape Reignited.”
“Let’s not mince words here. We have made you, as existing players, feel like you are no longer our focus,” the RuneScape team wrote. “That’s entirely on us and of our own making, and it’s only right we open by saying sorry.”
Reignited was one of the big announcements at RuneFest. It would open new worlds with a fresh economy and fresh progression, aimed at new and returning players, while existing characters would live on as Veteran accounts. Long-time players saw that as a split that would leave them behind, and many said so loudly, with some sharing screenshots of cancelled memberships, as GamesRadar reports.
Jagex listed the main concerns it heard. Players feel that Veteran characters “will no longer matter,” that Veteran worlds will wither as people move to Reignited, that splitting an already small playerbase will fragment it further, that limits on how Veteran and Reignited characters interact “do not feel good,” that untradeable items and cosmetics feel cut off, and that paying for a separate membership for a new character is unfair.
The studio says it still believes in the idea. A fresh start “is a big draw for new and returning players,” and interest after the announcement “far exceeded our initial expectations.” But it says it “missed our mark on making Veterans a clearer part of this idea.”
Jagex is now “exploring a heavy set of revisions.” Its main considerations are more ways for a Veteran’s progress “to remain intact and be represented meaningfully,” making sure “a hard split in community does not persist,” and possible changes to the separate membership requirement. It stresses that “every option for what we do with regards to Reignited remains firmly on the table,” and promises to put proposals in front of players by the end of this week.
The reversal comes days after Jagex set a date for the new worlds. For the original plan, see RCG’s report, RuneScape Reignited Dated for December 2.
