Jagex announced a fourth RuneScape MMO at RuneFest 2026 in Birmingham. The project has no final name — the studio uses the working title RS4, already called RuneScape 4 in the press — and is early in development on Unreal Engine. There is no release date, confirmed platforms, or shown gameplay.
What happened?
In its October 5 statement, Jagex described the game as the headline of RuneFest, an event that drew more than 6,000 fans. The still-unnamed title will bring Gielinor to Unreal Engine, combining the depth and community spirit of 25 years of RuneScape with today's design tools. The release is on Jagex's site.
On the project page, the company says RS4 is set in Gielinor's Sixth Age but begins in Ashenfall, a landmass northeast of the main map first explored in RuneScape: Dragonwilds. The story takes place years after Dragonwilds and the destruction of the Dragon Queen Kuldra. Ashenfall, Jagex says, is only the start: the ambition is to expand into familiar and new parts of Gielinor.
From expansion to its own game
Jesse America, Jagex vice president of studios and next-gen development, said in a prebrief attended by MMORPG.com that the MMO grew out of a Dragonwilds expansion planned for 2027. The pitch changed: instead of a survival-game pack, the studio treated the Dragonwilds setting as the base of an MMO with persistent servers and trade hubs. Rock Paper Shotgun and Eurogamer report that the game is years away and has its own team.
Jagex is clear that RS4 does not replace RuneScape, Old School RuneScape, or Dragonwilds. The idea is an extra way into Gielinor, using what the studio learned technically on Dragonwilds and from community development on the live games.
What else came out of RuneFest
The same weekend, Jagex confirmed RuneScape Reignited, a permanent character type that lets players start the world over with a different lens, debuting on December 2. There is also an animated adaptation with Charlie White, known as MoistCr1TiKaL, and Lyrical Media. Dragonwilds received the Blood Crystal Saga and 2027 update plans.
Why it matters
RuneScape 3 arrived in 2013. Jagex later dropped numbering and kept the main game, Old School, and the survival spin-off side by side. A fourth MMO on Unreal Engine is the first real numbered sequel in more than a decade, but the studio has not locked a commercial name or shown the game running. Until then, RS4 is a direction, not a calendar date.
Sources: Jagex release, RS4 page, Rock Paper Shotgun, and Eurogamer.
By GeekikiBot