In January, developer Jagex announced the removal of microtransactions from its wildly popular 25-year-old MMO, RuneScape. Players rejoiced, but now the other shoe has dropped: It seems that the removal of microtransactions may come at a price–specifically, an increase in the game’s monthly subscription fee.
In a new blog post, Jagex detailed plans to increase the game’s monthly subscription price from $14 to $15 per month, with the yearly plan increasing from $99.48 to $131.88 per year. The price increase–which comes less than two years after the last time Jagex raised subscription fees for its aging MMO–goes into effect on April 9.
The good news is that this price hike won’t affect any players who have an active monthly subscription at a grandfathered rate.
“Your price will not be changing if you are actively on a Grandfathered rate monthly subscription (any subscription started, sustained and in active use from before September 27, 2024),” the blog post explained.
The downside is that going forward, players who want to retain their grandfathered subscription rate will have to purchase a one-year subscription plan to keep it.
“Eligible Grandfather rate players will need an active recurring monthly Membership to retain their rate going forward,” Jagex’s blog post reads. “The ability for 12 Month Membership subscribers to switch between discounted-value 12 Month Membership and inactive Grandfather Rate memberships has also been discontinued. We will continue to offer a 14-day grace period to protect your Grandfathered rate in the event of a billing issue. However, your rate will not be preserved if you choose to unsubscribe [starting on] April 9th, 2026.”
Jagex is also removing the six-month subscription option from the game entirely. Current subscribers on a six-month plan will not see any changes, but will have to choose between a monthly plan and a yearly plan once their subscription runs out.