The new CEO of RuneScape 3 discussed the future of the MMORPG in an interview, explaining why he initially wants to forgo profits to save the MMORPG in the future.
Who is it about? Since March 2025, Jagex, the company behind the RuneScape franchise, has a new CEO, Jon Bellamy. During Gamescom, he was a guest of gaming journalist Christopher Dring from thegamebusiness.com and talked about the future of his MMORPG franchise on YouTube.
The new CEO is not only a long-time veteran of the gaming industry, but he is also a fan and player of RuneScape, which he has been playing as his main game for over 20 years. In the past, he has also worked at Jagex before returning as CEO.
With his new title as CEO of the company, the course for the future is to be set, and it will initially be worse for the company.
The motto is: It has to hurt before it gets better
What does the new CEO plan? With Bellamy as the new CEO of the company, a new course regarding monetization for RuneScape 3 will be set. Those who fear that it will lead to even stronger monetization are mistaken, as Bellamy is planning exactly the opposite.
Instead of continuing to rely on microtransactions like the treasure hunt system, the new CEO wants to reduce the monetization of his game. This is intended to ensure that players enjoy RuneScape 3 for a longer time and return to the MMORPG.
His vision is supported by surveys filled out by former and current players. In the interview, he explains that he was surprised himself. Many players indicate that they like some types of microtransactions and have no problem with them.
At the same time, especially former players stated that the microtransactions had caused them to stop playing RuneScape 3 and they would return if the microtransactions were reduced or removed.
Does fewer microtransactions mean less money? Exactly. The CEO explains in the interview that he is willing to accept a short-term decline in revenue if it means that RuneScape can enjoy more players in the long term.
Thus, the new monetization strategy is to bring back former players and keep new players engaged for longer, which should give the MMORPG a future for 10 or 25 years, the CEO believes in the interview. He also wants to involve players more, similar to what is done in Old School RuneScape.
The revenue for RuneScape 3 and the other titles is expected to be supported by the monthly subscription that applies to all titles and will be compensated by better player numbers.
RuneScape 3 and Old School RuneScape are among the largest MMORPGs in the genre. The CEO himself aims to make it the second-largest MMORPG franchise in the world within 5 years. According to him, we are not that far from it. This is probably mainly due to the significant stagnation in the genre: The MMORPG genre has not only stagnated for years, it is regressing – and that is annoying
