The MMORPGs RuneScape and Old School RuneScape are free-to-play but share a subscription for endgame content. Until now, the cost was €9.49 per month. Starting in May 2022, this and the costs for shop items and Runecoins will be increased. The community is upset, mainly due to the successes and ongoing issues with the games. They see no justification for the price increase.
What exactly changes with the subscription? From May 4th, the prices for RuneScape will increase in all currencies, although not uniformly. According to the developers, this must be done to offset higher development costs and inflation.
Players paying in euros are particularly affected. Prices there will increase by an average of 21.56%. In US dollars, prices will only increase by an average of 10.77%.
Notably, the developers have completely removed the subscription for three consecutive months. However, they did not provide a reason for this.
The increases will initially only apply to new subscriptions. Those who continue with their subscription are not affected for the time being. It’s also important to note that the regular 12-month subscription previously cost €79.99, but between November and March, there was always the Premier Club, which only cost €64.99 for 12 months. This price will now be adjusted to €69.99 for the entire year.
How is the increase received? Not well. However, players do not criticize the price adjustments themselves, as they would be completely understandable under different circumstances.
The price increase comes at a time when the developer studio Jagex is celebrating record player numbers and revenues. As reported in 2019, RuneScape had its most successful year since 2001. Since then, things have been going even better.
There is also criticism for the lack of player support, an increase in bots, and allegedly poor employee pay. These issues should be addressed first before players are expected to pay more.
RuneScape celebrates great success with mobile and Steam release
What is the current state of RuneScape? Actually pretty good. Player numbers are at a record high thanks to the release on mobile and the releases on Steam, where Old School RuneScape belongs to the MMORPGs with the best ratings.
In November 2020, more than 164,000 players played Old School RuneScape simultaneously and additionally, another 52,000 people played RuneScape. This means they were almost at the level of simultaneous players that Lost Ark currently has.
In early 2022, the financial report for the year 2020 was released. Revenues in RuneScape grew by 18%, while in Old School RuneScape they grew by 6% (via Jagex financial report ).
- Revenues were €130 million in 2019 and €144 million in 2020
- The pure profit after tax, operating costs, and so on was €52 million in 2019 and €42 million in 2020
What is the problem? These profits should be used, as the community wishes, to improve the two MMORPGs. However, Jagex belongs to another company that takes a share of the revenues.
This company withdrew a total of €109 million in 2019 and 2020. More than the actual profits allowed.
This leads to a standstill in the development of the two MMORPGs. Fans are upset because they fear that the additional revenues from subscription fees will not flow into the further development of the games, but directly into the pockets of the investors.
The user esporx wrote a long post about this (via reddit). He emphasizes that the problem is not the developers and community managers, but those at the top who are letting the game deteriorate. Generally, the topic of price increases is currently dominating the subreddits of both MMORPGs.
Price increase would be acceptable if the value is right
What are the problems with RuneScape? According to the reddit user TTGunlimited, there are some issues that Jagex needs to address for the game to be worth the price increase (via reddit):
- The customer support is said to be poor. Those who lose access to their account or are wrongly banned are said to have only a very small chance of ever getting their account back.
- The chat is said to be crawling with scams, bots, and gold sellers.
- Account security is a problem because you cannot use capital letters and symbols in passwords.
- Employee pay is said to be poor, also because the studio itself is located in one of the most expensive environments in the UK.
So far, Jagex has not commented on these allegations.
How do you see the price increase for RuneScape? Do you think the costs are too high, or are some players exaggerating their concerns?
In WoW, there was also a big discussion about subscription fees in early 2021. At that time, the options for Game Time Cards for 30, 90, and 180 days were removed:
The changes to game time in WoW are bad and against the interests of the players
