Jagex Announces RuneScape 4, a Fourth MMO in Unreal Engine Set in Ashenfall and Still Years Away

By CriticalPixel · 2026-10-03

Jagex has pulled the curtain back on RuneScape 4, a fourth MMO for the company, built in Unreal Engine, set in Gielinor and, by the studio's own admission, still a few years from being playable. Wario64's post about the reveal landed on X around 20:28 UTC on October 3 and pointed straight to Jagex's own teaser page. There is no release date, no platform list, no pricing and no word on membership. What there is, is a studio telling its community very early that it is starting something big, and asking everyone to watch it get built.

Official RuneScape Dragonwilds screenshot of the Ashenfall setting that RuneScape 4 starts in

What Jagex Actually Confirmed

Jagex's own teaser page lays out a short list and not much else. The fourth MMO is now in development, it is a new RuneScape MMORPG built in Unreal Engine, and it sits alongside RuneScape, Old School RuneScape and Dragonwilds as an independent experience. Jagex says it will follow the principles of integrity, permanent progression and community driven development, and that the game is set in Gielinor beginning in Ashenfall. CEO Jon Bellamy frames the whole thing around 25 years of RuneScape history, going back to its days as a Java browser game. Jagex also admits it thought hard about revealing the project this early and could have kept it behind closed doors for much longer. The stated reason is that its games work best when it builds them with players instead of just for them, and more details on the team, the world and how to get involved are promised next year.

The setting is the interesting part. RS4 takes place in the Sixth Age, years after the events of RuneScape: Dragonwilds and the destruction of the Dragon Queen Kuldra, in Ashenfall, the landmass to the north-east of Gielinor that Dragonwilds players explored first. Jagex says Ashenfall is only the starting point and wants the game to grow into familiar corners of Gielinor and brand new places over time. That reads like a long-lived live service plan, not a one-off spin-off. It also answers a question a lot of players asked the moment the title leaked out: no, this is not a replacement for any existing game, and Jagex says so in plain words.

From Dragonwilds Expansion to Standalone MMO

The origin story is where this gets good. According to The Circuitry, citing Polygon, the project started as Shadows of Ashenfall, an expansion for the survival game Dragonwilds. Players kept asking for more social mechanics, namely persistent servers, higher player counts and player-to-player trading, and the prototypes grew until the team decided the thing deserved to be its own game. Dragonwilds executive producer Jesse America called it the studio's fourth pillar, and the trailer reportedly shows dragons you can both fight and ride. The reveal happened at RuneFest in Birmingham, and Jagex plans to pull teams from across the whole studio into the project. So this is not a side project for a skeleton crew, at least on paper.

Official RuneScape Dragonwilds screenshot showing the world Jagex built RuneScape 4 from

RuneScape Reignited Lands First on December 2

The same weekend, Jagex announced RuneScape Reignited, and it matters for reading RS4 properly. The Circuitry reports that Reignited launches December 2, with every player starting at level 3 in a world without treasure hunters, a new economy, and ten days of free members content for new and returning players. It is aimed at lapsed players who feel locked out after 25 years of accumulated progress, a similar approach to World of Warcraft Forever. Existing accounts are said to stay untouched, with Reignited characters sharing Gielinor much like Ironman characters coexist with standard ones today. Put together, Jagex is running a reset and revive plan now and a separate fourth game later. That is a lot of RuneScape to follow at once, and the studio has not yet said how accounts or membership will work for RS4.

What Players Are Saying

Reaction in the replies under that Wario64 post splits fast. Some are hyped: one player called a few years a long wait but said Gielinor is worth it, another hopes it reaches Xbox and Switch 2 the way they say Dragonwilds did, and a couple of replies asked for a third-person MMO instead of an overhead one. The skeptics are louder about timing. One asked whether Dragonwilds had only just started up, another questioned why this is necessary, and a third called it unneeded and unwanted. A request to make it more like RS2 and less like RS3 showed up too. That is a handful of replies from one thread, so treat it as a mood rather than a verdict, but the pattern is clear: nobody is shrugging at a RuneScape reboot.

Official RuneScape Dragonwilds screenshot of a Gielinor landscape

The CriticalPixel Take

Announcing an MMO years before anyone can play it is a gamble, and Jagex knows it, which is why the page leans so hard on community co-development. I like the honesty of admitting it is still at the very start more than a polished trailer with a fake release window. What I do not like is the stacking: Old School, RuneScape, Dragonwilds, a Reignited relaunch and now a fourth MMO, all asking for attention and subscription money from one fan base. The promises of integrity and permanent progression are the right ones, and they are also the ones the community will hold Jagex to the first time a monetization idea shows up. If RS4 really grew out of player demand for trading and persistent servers in Dragonwilds, that is a healthier origin than a boardroom deciding it needs another MMO.

For now the useful takeaways are short. RS4 is in development, built in Unreal Engine, starting in Ashenfall and years out. Reignited arrives December 2. Everything else, from platforms to pricing to combat, is a blank, and Jagex says answers come next year. Until then, sign up for updates if you care and keep your expectations parked somewhere safe.