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Jagex Reveals RS4, a New RuneScape MMORPG Built in Unreal Engine
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Jagex announced a completely new RuneScape MMORPG at RuneFest 2026 on October 3, 2026, unveiling the early-development project on an official announcement page under the working title RS4. The Unreal Engine-powered game is set in the world of Gielinor, and the studio said it remains a few years away from release.
The reveal took place at RuneFest 2026, held at the NEC in Birmingham as a two-day event marking the 25th anniversary of RuneScape. In its RuneFest 2026 Final Preview, published October 2, 2026, Jagex said the event livestream would begin at 2pm BST on October 3, 2026, with the RuneScape Summit airing live from 7pm to 7:45pm BST and showfloor programming including the Golden Gnome Awards and the OSRS PVP Invitational. A RuneFest 2026 roundup post dated October 3, 2026 confirmed that the Summit took place that day, and that the event also brought the announcement of RuneScape Reignited and the reveal of RuneScape’s 2027 roadmap.
On the announcement page, Jagex said the reveal made good on an extra announcement it had teased for RuneFest, describing RS4 as a project it had been quietly working on. The studio said RS4 is its fourth-generation RuneScape project and its fourth MMO, now in development, and that while the working title fits for now, it is not necessarily the name the game will eventually carry.
Set in Sixth Age Gielinor, Beginning in Ashenfall
According to the announcement page, RS4 will be set in Gielinor during the Sixth Age, with the journey beginning in Ashenfall, an area first explored in RuneScape: Dragonwilds and a landmass to the north-east of Gielinor. Jagex said the game takes place years after the events of Dragonwilds, following the destruction of the Dragon Queen Kuldra, and that Ashenfall has changed in the time since.
The studio said Ashenfall is only the start, describing an ambition for the adventure to grow well beyond the region over time, expanding into familiar parts of Gielinor while also opening up new locations and stories across the world.
An Early Reveal, Built With Players
Jagex said it weighed carefully whether to reveal the project this early, given that the game is still at the very beginning of development and years from release, and that it could have continued work in private for much longer before saying anything.
Keeping the project private for longer “didn’t feel very RuneScape, or very us,” the studio wrote.
Jagex said players have shaped RuneScape for 25 years, and that it has learned its games turn out best when developed alongside players instead of merely for them. The studio said it wants players brought into the development journey earlier than they might expect, with the team putting forward ideas, testing them with players, and adjusting as it learns. It also said it aims to carry over the technology lessons from Dragonwilds and the community co-development approach it built up through RuneScape and Old School RuneScape, applying both to something new. Jagex said RS4 will hold to its principles of integrity, permanent progression and community-driven development.
An Additional RuneScape, Not a Replacement
Jagex made clear that RS4 will not replace any of its existing games, naming Old School RuneScape, RuneScape and Dragonwilds, and said those games keep their own dedicated teams, roadmaps and continued investment. The studio said RS4 is instead being designed as an independent experience that sits alongside them, offering another way into RuneScape and the world of Gielinor.
“The ambition isn’t to replace the RuneScape games you love. It’s to make the RuneScape universe bigger,” the studio wrote, adding that some players may focus on a single game while others move between several or come to Gielinor for the first time through RS4. Jagex said it believes a range of different RuneScape experiences can strengthen the wider family of games.
Jagex said it expects players to have questions about platforms, accounts, membership, progression, combat, skills and when they will be able to play, and said it is simply too early to answer them, describing the announcement as an early look rather than the full reveal. The announcement page invites players to register their interest by email to take part in the project’s journey.
The studio closed by recalling that RuneScape started 25 years ago as a single world from a small team, built up with its community into something far bigger than expected, and said it is now starting another adventure together with players. Jagex said it will share more in 2027 about the world, the game itself and the team building it, along with how players can begin getting involved.
