{"id":816519,"date":"2026-07-21T14:35:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T14:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/816519\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T14:35:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T14:35:12","slug":"runescape-ceo-we-want-to-be-bigger-than-world-of-warcraft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/816519\/","title":{"rendered":"RuneScape CEO: We want to be bigger than World of Warcraft"},"content":{"rendered":"

Listen now on Apple<\/a>, Spotify<\/a> or YouTube<\/a><\/p>\n

In This Edition,
Jagex CEO Jon Bellamy on\u2026<\/p>\n

Taking on World of Warcraft<\/p>\n

Old School\u2019s surprising fanbase<\/p>\n

The \u2018pain\u2019 of changing monetization<\/p>\n

The console opportunity<\/p>\n

Winning China<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a complaint on the RuneScape subreddit about a graphical bug.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a fence that has impaled the edge of a barrel. It\u2019s a pretty minor issue. Nevertheless, one person on that subreddit has made it their mission to get it fixed.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe made a post every day saying: \u2018Day 112 of waiting for this barrel to be fixed,\u2019\u201d says Jagex CEO Jon Bellamy.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I sat with one of the lead designers and I asked, \u2018Look, I\u2019ve seen this Reddit post for the last 129 days. Are we going to do something?\u2019 And he said, \u2018What if we moved it further into the fence?\u2019 I said, \u2018That\u2019s such a good idea.\u2019 We then spent about a half a year moving it an inch further into the fence every day, and this guy responded every day with \u2018day 400 of waiting for this stupid barrel thing to be over\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow it is out of the fence with a hole where the fence was, leaking water forevermore. I think that playfulness is really who we are at our best. It makes this place turn over. It makes players happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

I enjoyed that story. Not only does it showcase the distinctive British whimsy that\u2019s made RuneScape famous, but it also highlights how engaged Bellamy is with the franchise. He\u2019s on the subreddits, he\u2019s religiously playing the game (he was fishing in Old School RuneScape before our interview), and he\u2019s at all the events (signing babies!).<\/p>\n

And Jagex is RuneScape. There\u2019s no other IP. No third-party publishing. It\u2019s rebranded itself as Jagex: The RuneScape Company, and sold off its one non-RuneScape game, Scum, alongside its developer, Gamepires, to fellow UK studio Splash Damage.<\/p>\n

\u201cNever say never,\u201d Bellamy says. \u201cBut I have no intention of going beyond RuneScape with this business.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur team size is less because we have fewer studios and products, but focus is through the roof. It\u2019s really liberating to be able to do one thing better than anybody else in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really liberating to do one thing better than anybody else in the world\u201d<\/p>\n

That focus has manifested itself into three goals: Turn around its declining RuneScape MMO, invest heavily in the successful Old School RuneScape product, and fully release the survival game RuneScape: Dragonwilds.<\/p>\n

We spoke to Bellamy about all this at Jagex\u2019s offices in Cambridge, UK. And you can watch the full interview above (it\u2019s a good one). Or check out the selected highlights below.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

RuneScape is the second biggest MMO brand globally, Jagex claims.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s bound to be debate over how you measure \u2018biggest\u2019, or indeed what is classed as an MMO, but regardless, Jagex sees itself as No.2, and it has its sights set on No.1: World of Waracraft.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe dream is that we\u2019re not the number two biggest MMO brand in the world,\u201d says Bellamy. \u201cWe\u2019re number one. There\u2019s a big old gap between us and number one, but if we get it right, we know we can make headway. It\u2019s lofty and ambitious, but if you\u2019re going to set lofty and ambitious goals, why not swing for the top? So, that\u2019s the number one goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, Jagex changed how it monetizes RuneScape. It removed the unpopular (but lucrative) Treasure Hunter microtransaction, which gave players XP boosts, gold and gameplay-skipping items.<\/p>\n

We spoke to Bellamy last year,<\/a> who admitted that the company would likely take a financial hit by doing this, but change was necessary to get RuneScape back to growth.<\/p>\n

Nine months later, has the company taken a financial hit? And have players come back?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has impacted revenue, not positively,\u201d he says. \u201cRuneScape revenue is down quite a large chunk. The reason why I took [this decision], the reason why we got the backing above me, is because I don\u2019t think there was [any other] legitimate way to reset the standards for the game that would allow us to have a shot at coming back to growth. It has been painful, exactly as we thought it would be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bellamy says that membership has stabilized for the first time in nearly four years, but user growth will require more than just changing monetization.<\/p>\n

\u201cSetting the table for growth is not the same as expecting growth to come as a result of setting the table. You need to put something on the table to bring people in. We\u2019ve set the table, we\u2019ve spent the last year not just removing that monetization layer, but overhauling so much of the clunkiness and the pain within the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe guy who runs our RuneScape studio has been here for 13 years. He\u2019s been a RuneScape player for 20. The person calling the shots on how to bring this thing back to life was a player in its golden age. He\u2019s done a great job on getting the game into a healthy position. So less daily, less FOMO, less of the rubbish.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been told very clearly not to give anything away, but on October 3 at RuneFest, we\u2019ll be announcing our equivalent of putting a feast on the table, to really actively win people back, and that\u2019ll be happening much sooner than many people expect.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Old School RuneScape had a starring role in a new pop video<\/p>\n

The core RuneScape game may be having a tough time, but the reverse is true of Old School RuneScape. \u201cWe broke just about every record we\u2019ve ever had across every major metric in the last 12 months, and multiple times,\u201d Bellamy says.<\/p>\n

The retro version of RuneScape (it\u2019s based on the 2007 version of the game) is growing, and Jagex will invest a further \u00a3200 million to turn it \u201cinto a stalwart product rather than a scrappy underdog.\u201d<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not just for older fans, either. In fact, half of Old School RuneScape\u2019s active audience had never played a RuneScape game before.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve chosen to play the 2007 version as their first RuneScape experience,\u201d Bellamy explains. \u201cI think most people assume that this is something for the old-timers who\u2019ve always been here. It\u2019s not true. It stands alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why does he think that is?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe easy answer is it\u2019s great. But I think it\u2019s a bit like some of the metal bands from the late \u201890s. You\u2019re starting to see the Kylie Jenners of the world wearing Iron Maiden and Metallica T-shirts, and there\u2019s a bunch of kids that I see that have no idea what Metallica is, but they love the font and think it\u2019s a cool shirt. I have mixed feelings about that, but there is a bit of a resurgence, and we have that same feeling a bit with Old School.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have captured a portion of time that even those who weren\u2019t there in their formative teenage years still long for. There\u2019s a collective nostalgia for the simpler days before all the madness of social media.\u201d<\/p>\n

The game has even shown up in a new music video from artist Phoebe Bridgers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like a real cross-cultural moment where in the middle of this like super poppy, very zeitgeisty music video, there\u2019s a guy in a gas station playing Old School RuneScape,\u201d Bellamy says. \u201cIt so well encapsulates what Old School is for so many people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The third game in the RuneScape franchise is the survival game Dragonwilds, which launched into Early Access last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought it was going to sell about 200,000 units in Early Access. We\u2019re at about 1.3 million,\u201d Bellamy says. \u201cSince the beginning of this month, we\u2019ve sold about another 100,000.\u201d<\/p>\n

That boost follows the game\u2019s launch in Southeast Asia, including a version for Chinese players.<\/p>\n

\u201cRuneScape had zero presence in those countries. And part of that is because of what we make. [Our games have this] Monty Python-style, very British humor. It resonates really well in Finland. It resonates very well in Japan, as we\u2019ve recently learned. It resonates very well in the Netherlands and the US. It\u2019s very Western-centric. Or at least that\u2019s what we\u2019d assumed. And then we release a product in China for the first time, and in our first week following the release, 41% of sales have been to Chinese buyers. And since then, it\u2019s evened out at about 15% to 20% a day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, maybe our long-held suspicions about cultural fit aren\u2019t as true as we thought.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dragonwilds will launch on PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo when it exits Early Access in September. It will be the first RuneScape game to ever launch on consoles.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a testing what we\u2019ve always assumed to be not right for us,\u201d he says. \u201cOver the last 25 years, somebody somewhere looked at consoles, said it wasn\u2019t going to be possible, probably not even worth it, and the upside isn\u2019t that much. And that has just hung around in the walls of this place. This is our first legitimate \u2018we\u2019re actually going to do this thing\u2019 moment. A new RuneScape product, tons of resource invested, tons of time invested, tons of heart. We\u2019re going to bring it to new platforms where historically we\u2019ve never been, and therefore it will be hard to get off the ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve done some numbers on this. We think there\u2019s about six million of our historical players on each of the main platforms, so Xbox and PlayStation, and then about twice that on Switch. So, when we\u2019ve been speaking with the platforms, I\u2019ve been saying, \u2018Look, you don\u2019t need to create an audience for us. We have one. They\u2019re there. Let\u2019s bring them a game.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Jagex faces a few challenges with Dragonwilds. It\u2019s coming to consoles at a time when that sector is facing severe headwinds due to rising prices.<\/p>\n

It also launches in a hyper congested September as publishers seek to avoid the launch of GTA 6 in November.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeptember is congested, and yes, we\u2019ll have to fight for our place,\u201d Bellamy says. \u201cBut it is genuinely very good, and secondarily, we have this unique advantage of 300 million RuneScape players that we can really lean in on. That helps to de-risk a bit. But you\u2019d be foolish to say that it isn\u2019t harder today than it was six months ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continues: \u201cIt\u2019s a control the controllables thing. I speak with my Board and my team and say, \u2018Look, some of our expectations might need to shift a bit because GTA is launching in November. Everybody else is launching in September. Console prices are going through the roof. There\u2019s a bunch of things changing around us that we can\u2019t control.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cOur job is to come to the places where players are, do our very best interpretation of giving them what they want, and carry on. The rest of it that is outside of our control isn\u2019t really worth worrying about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thank you for reading! We\u2019ll be back Thursday with a special edition of The Game Business featuring Amazon. You won\u2019t want to miss it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen now on Apple, Spotify or YouTube In This Edition,Jagex CEO Jon Bellamy on\u2026 Taking on World of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":816520,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[49,48,61],"class_list":["post-816519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=816519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/816520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=816519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=816519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=816519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}