RuneScape

Cambridge, UK - Tuesday 21 ^st December 2010 – Jagex Games Studio, developer of RuneScape, the world’s most popular free-to-play MMORPG, today announced the launch of an unprecedented petition for players to decide whether to reintroduce unrestricted Free Trade and the Wilderness to RuneScape.

Jagex has launched the online petition www.RuneScape.com/wilderness to offer the RuneScape community the unique chance to directly influence and shape the future of the game as the studio gears up for RuneScape’s 10th Anniversary celebrations in January 2011.

“We want to celebrate RuneScape’s 10th anniversary by offering our loyal community the chance to decide, once and for all, the future of Free Trade and the Wilderness,” said Christoph Vietzke, Head of RuneScape. “Never before has an MMO developer given their community the platform to decide on an update as game changing as this and we are confident that our players will make the right call – whatever it may be. We will only make the changes if the community really supports it, so if you are in favour of bringing back the Wildy, pledge your support straightaway.”

“When considering game changing decisions such as this we always hold our players’ ultimate game experience firmly in mind,” said Mark Gerhard, Jagex CEO. “We have released a host of new content which provides a comparable PvP experience to the old Wilderness and mechanics to allow increased trade limits with long term friends but we are still regularly told by players that they want more. We want to find out whether the passionate voices we hear on this topic are truly representative of entire community or just a vocal minority. If the vast majority of our players support of the campaign then we will restore these features to the game as quickly as possible.”

Should the players vote in favour of the update, unrestricted trade will be reintroduced to the game granting all players the freedom to gift their wealth to their friends or trade items, without restrictions, with the wider RuneScape community. The Wilderness would also once again become the most dangerous area in RuneScape, where players fight to the death for wealth and glory. The Wilderness represents one of the most extreme risk-versus-reward combat systems of any MMO with players staking their armour, weapons and resources to defeat others and loot their remains. With numerous new features added to RuneScape over recent years including: summoning creatures, new curses, more powerful weaponry and armour, the new Wilderness would offer players even greater levels of variety and excitement to the fast paced, kill-or-be-killed environment.

The community petition, which will run until the 14 ^th January 2011, is just the start of a series of celebration events and updates designed to mark RuneScape’s 10th birthday and to thank the community for making RuneScape the global success story it is today. To find out more and to support of the campaign please visit: www.RuneScape.com/wilderness.  

To create a free RuneScape account and begin your RuneScape adventure simply visit: www.RuneScape.com.

About RuneScape

RuneScape is the world’s most popular free-to-play MMO (as recognised by Guinness World Records), from multiple award-winning independent British development studio Jagex. Set in a richly detailed, medieval fantasy world of epic scale both geographically and historically, RuneScape proudly draws its inspiration from classic role-playing games to deliver a contemporary, innovative and original experience for millions of players across the globe as a fully featured free-to-play game, with a popular subscription option of even greater scale and ambition, both running directly within almost any computer’s browser.

Thanks to its class-free skill system and elective gameplay, there are no limits to the hero players can become, no quest you cannot complete and no requirement to collaborate with others or face them in player-versus-player combat unless you so choose.  RuneScape’s distinctive role-playing style rewards players who think strategically and play smartly. Its witty, intelligent tone, finely balanced gameplay, epic questing and myriad in-world diversions combine to create a game that has earned its place as the most popular free MMO game of all time and continues to push the boundaries of online role-playing as it enters its glorious tenth year.

About Jagex – Just About the Game Experience:

Jagex Games Studio is a multi-award winning games developer and publisher based in Cambridge, England. Jagex specialises in the development of high quality browser-based games and is the largest independent games developer and publisher in the UK.

Jagex has a long-standing reputation for creating the world’s best online games and for developing hugely popular, high quality, accessible, free-to-play games and for providing an unbeatable community experience for millions of players around the world. Jagex has developed and self-published over 40 online titles including the world’s most popular free online multiplayer game, RuneScape.

Press Contact:

Adam Tuckwell

Communications Manager

Jagex Games Studio

Email:    Press@Jagex.com

Tel:         +44 (0)844 588 6607

Fax:        +44 (0)844 588 6611