I’ve written quite a bit about Jagex and the issue of “not-RuneScape” in the past, and while I penned an editorial about its history over at MMORPG.com earlier last year, I’ve been meaning to give the topic another look for quite some time. If you aren’t acquainted with Jagex’s history of developing games that are not RuneScape, I highly recommend reading that article before you continue here otherwise it’ll probably look like I’m just trashing a successful company for no reason. It’s a long history of failed “hobby projects,” mismanaged and abandoned long before anyone would bother to inform the public.
So since my last full editorial in 2012, there has been a lot of stuff going on at Jagex. Transformers Universe went into beta and, as I suspected, it fumbled the ball at the two yard line and Hasbro pulled the IP. Block N Load launched and has subsequently plummeted in traffic, relaunched as a free to play game and has been on the decline ever since. The winter league was a mess and ended in a cancellation due to the number of teams dropping out. Carnage Racing, released on Steam in 2013, can no longer be purchased and its online was shut off with no announcement if you read the forums. It looks like Jagex pulled out of publishing Entropy since they are no longer credited and the game has a monthly average of six users.
But something else happened in that time frame, Jagex successfully launched Old School RuneScape. So successfully, in fact, that Old School has surpassed the population of RuneScape 3. It launched as a snapshot of what the game was like back in 2007 with Jagex talking about how they might make a few small changes here and there, and it has grown into a separate title entirely, one that continues to receive substantial content on par and possibly even better than its bigger budget big brother considering the team size.
If I had to comment on Old School, however, I’d say that the original point I made years back still stands: That RuneScape is Jagex’s sacred cow, and that any venture outside of that property is doomed to failure. Old School RuneScape was an experiment that went right, but at the end of the day it is RuneScape. It’s like the model train you pull out of a box in the attic. While you dust it off, give it a fresh coat of paint, and make some additions to it, its core remains the same. The guys and gals working on Old School made the right choice by allowing the community to dictate what updates the game is allowed to receive.
RuneScape Chronicle is in beta right now and we’ll have to see how it does considering that while it is based on the RuneScape lore, it isn’t RuneScape. There is still the MMO that Jagex announced earlier last year that may or may not be Stellar Dawn. Ace of Spades and Block N Load are still online with their small communities.
But who knows where Jagex’s new CEO will take the company. Mark Gerhard apologized a few years ago for treating their non-RuneScape games like “hobby projects.” We’ll have to see what direction the company takes under Rod Cousens, and I’m holding on to faith that the company can break ground into games that are not RuneScape.
In the meantime, check out our interview with Jagex on Deadman Mode from last year.
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