Jagex has announced that it is working on a brand-new RuneScape MMORPG. The project is confirmed to be in development under the working title RS4, and is being made with Unreal Engine 5. It will share the same core setting as the other RuneScape games – the fantasy world of Gielinor. The company has also said that the project won’t necessarily be released as “RuneScape 4”, and that RS4 is simply a way to denote that it is a “fourth-generation RuneScape project”.
The title is also not meant to be a replacement for any of the other RuneScape games available right now, and will instead sit alongside Old School RuneScape, RuneScape, and RuneScape: Dragonwilds as a brand-new way for players to experience the world. All of the games will continue to have “their own dedicated teams, exciting roadmaps, and continued investment”.
“In fact, we think having different RuneScape experiences can make the whole family stronger. Players may spend most of their time in one game, move between several, or discover Gielinor for the very first time through RS4,” explained the company. “The ambition isn’t to replace the RuneScape games you love. It’s to make the RuneScape universe bigger.”
RS4 is still quite some time away from release, and Jagex has said that it originally discussed the idea of keeping the project a secret until the development team was ready to show it off. However, since the company takes the transparency of the development of its RuneScape games quite seriously, it wanted to continue the streak of players having a voice in how it shapes up.
“For 25 years, RuneScape has been shaped by its players. We’ve learned that our games are at their best when we build with you, not just for you. So, we want to do that from the beginning, and that means bringing you into the development journey earlier than you might expect – sharing ideas, testing things, listening and learning as we go.”
On the story front, RS4 will be set in the Sixth Age of Gielinor, and will use Ashenfall as its core setting. Fans of the franchise will recognize it as the core setting for RuneScape: Dragonwilds that sits north-east of the rest of Gielinor. It will take place an undisclosed number of years after the events of the survival crafting game’s story, which ends with the destruction of Dragon Queen Kuldra.
Over time, the team also wants to grow RS4 beyond the confines of Ashenfall, with players being able to experience other parts of Gielinor that they may have encountered in Old School RuneScape. New places are also planned for the project.
There are currently no details revealed about what the gameplay or visual style of RS4 will look like. However, it is likely that Jagex will stick to the core RuneScape game loop of players exploring the world and grinding out their various skills in order to unlock brand-new abilities. The visual style might similarly take more direct inspiration from Dragonwilds, with an emphasis on lushly detailed 3D landscapes.
