RS4 is the working title of a new RuneScape MMORPG that Jagex is building in Unreal Engine, and the studio says players are still a few years away from playing it.
Jagex says the name is provisional. RS4 reflects the studio's count of this as its fourth-generation RuneScape project, and the final title may differ. Jagex gave players their first look at the game during its RuneFest event and chose to disclose it this early on purpose, arguing that RuneScape games are at their best when players help build them from the start. For a project the studio itself calls hugely ambitious and still at the beginning, that amounts to a commitment to developing in public.
The game is set in Gielinor, the RuneScape world, during the Sixth Age, and it begins in Ashenfall. That landmass, northeast of Gielinor, was first explored in RuneScape: Dragonwilds, and Jagex places RS4 years after that game's events and the destruction of the Dragon Queen Kuldra. Ashenfall has changed in the interim, the studio says. Over time the plan is to move well beyond it, into familiar places and new ones.
Existing players get a direct reassurance. RS4 does not replace Old School RuneScape, RuneScape or Dragonwilds, per Jagex; each keeps its own dedicated team and roadmap, and the new game is meant as an additional way into the same world. The studio expects some players to stay in one game, others to move between several, and newcomers to find Gielinor through RS4.
Three design principles are fixed from the start, according to Jagex: integrity, permanent progression and community-driven development. The studio also says it will build on the technology work it did for Dragonwilds and on the community co-development it has practiced with RuneScape and Old School RuneScape. That pairs the company's newest engineering experience with its oldest player relationships.
Jagex says it is too early to name platforms, account and membership rules, progression details, combat, skills or a release date. It has promised a 2027 update on the world, the game and the team building it, along with ways for players to get involved. Until then, the RS4 page offers an email sign-up for players who want to follow along.
