RuneScape Reignited Launches December 2, and Jagex Reveals RS4

Jagex closed its RuneScape Summit at RuneFest 2026 in Birmingham on Saturday with the kind of double announcement that rewires a community overnight. First came RuneScape Reignited, a fresh start version of the 25 year old MMO that launches on December 2. Then, in a classic "one more thing" moment, the studio confirmed that a fourth RuneScape MMO is in development, built in Unreal Engine and currently going by the working title RS4.

Both announcements come with official write-ups, a Reignited blog with a full FAQ and a dedicated RS4 page, and we have gone through both so you do not have to.

Video: RuneScape on YouTube

What Reignited actually is

Reignited is not a new server or a new game. Jagex describes it as a new permanent character type, in the same way Ironman is a character type today. A Reignited character starts in a brand new economy with its own hiscores and its own Grand Exchange, and there is no paid progression available to it. Jagex removed Treasure Hunter back in January 2026, and it says that by the time Reignited launches there will be no integrity breaking microtransaction items anywhere in the game. Cosmetic overrides from the marketplace are still allowed, but Radiant stars are not.

The two populations share the world. Reignited and existing "Veteran" characters walk the same Gielinor, can chat, and can join the same clans and homesteads. What they cannot do is trade with each other, share a Grand Exchange or share boss instances, and a character can never be converted from one type to the other. Reignited characters also get access to Reignited-only worlds. Jagex says gold swapping into or out of Reignited will be prohibited and that it is tightening anti-cheat before December.

Reignited needs its own membership, but every Reignited character gets free access to members' worlds for the first ten days, from December 2 through December 12. The same update ships the Adventure Guide, an optional golden path through the game for new and returning players, and the first part of the Remastered Journey, which reworks the early game from Tutorial Island through Seers' Village, Camelot and Elvarg's lair, with early quest bosses getting proper mechanics and health bars. A new Hall of Legends will hand out permanent statues to whoever claims the world first achievements that open up again with the fresh economy.

RS4, the Unreal Engine MMO

The RS4 page is refreshingly direct about how little is settled. The game is a new RuneScape MMORPG built in Unreal Engine, set in Gielinor during the Sixth Age, and it begins in Ashenfall, the continent players first explored in RuneScape: Dragonwilds. The story picks up years after the events of that game and the destruction of the Dragon Queen Kuldra, and Jagex wants the adventure to grow into familiar parts of Gielinor over time.

Jagex says RS4 is still a few years away and that it is revealing the project this early because it wants to build the game with players rather than for them. The studio stresses that RS4 is not a replacement for RuneScape, Old School RuneScape or Dragonwilds, which all keep their own teams and roadmaps, and that integrity and permanent progression will be central to its design. Platforms, accounts, membership, combat, skills and any testing timeline are all explicitly off the table for now, with more promised next year.

Everything else from the weekend

The RuneScape 2027 roadmap moves the game to a format Jagex calls Arcs, roughly four months of content each tied to one world narrative. Hoard of Dragons kicks off in January with the Dragon Slayer II quest, a new Dragon Isle area, Grandmaster clue scrolls and a long requested Agility rework. The City of Gnomes follows in summer with The Curse of Arposandra, a grandmaster quest that finally opens the lost gnome city, and Secrets of Karamja brings a new raid at the Temple of Ah Za Rhoon.

Old School RuneScape got its own summit. Hardcore Worlds, a one life mode on separate worlds with a separate economy, arrives on November 4, and The Fractured Archive raid lands on October 20. Jagex also announced an animated RuneScape series with Lyrical Animation and creator Charlie "MoistCr1TiKaL" White.

Our take: Reignited is the more consequential news for anyone thinking about playing this year, because it gives RuneScape a genuine new player moment without splitting the world in two. RS4 is a statement of intent rather than something to plan around, and we will know a lot more about both when December arrives.