Earlier this week, Runescape developer Jagex introduced upcoming pricing will increase for Runescape membership prices. On September 27, 2024, the value of a membership subscription will enhance from $12.49 USD monthly to $13.99 USD monthly. A premier 12 month subscription, which incorporates further in-game bonuses for subscribing for a complete 12 months without delay, will enhance in worth from $79.99 USD yearly to $99.48 USD yearly.
Players at the moment subscribed on month-to-month or 6-month intervals will have the ability to proceed paying their present “Grandfather Rate” for so long as they preserve their subscription. The Grandfather Rate is unavailable for gamers with annual premium memberships.
Jagex defended the value hike in its pricing change announcement, saying, “Membership pricing has been unchanged within the final two years regardless of latest international inflationary pressures.” . According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, US client costs rose 3.2% from July 2022 to July 2023 and  2.9% from July 2023 to July 2024, for a complete of 6.1% during the last two years. Meanwhile, Jagex’s September worth modifications will enhance the price of a month-to-month Runescape membership by round 12%. Worse, the price of an annual premium subscription—the subscription tier that is not eligible for grandfathering—is rising greater than 24%.
Technically, Runescape may be performed without spending a dime, however the overwhelming majority of in-game content material is gated behind a membership subscription. Crucially, nevertheless, you possibly can solely have a single character on a Runescape account. For many Old School Runescape gamers, month-to-month membership costs being inside $2 of a World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy 14 subscription—each AAA video games the place you possibly can have dozens of characters—is a worth proposition that is approaching absurdity.
On Reddit, gamers are expressing an unsurprising outrage. “Nah, this one is not okay,” says redditor ALegendsTale, noting that the value change and different service frustrations have adopted Jagex’s latest sale to personal fairness corporations. “The worth will increase in the previous few years have gone overboard.”Â
Elsewhere, fashionable Runescape gamers could not assist however discover that the value modifications are hitting simply earlier than the addition of the eagerly awaited Group Ironman mode. Another redditor was extra frank with their evaluation: “Inflation my ass.”
The September 2024 worth modifications will mark Runescape’s sixth membership worth enhance. Jagex’s first worth change befell on August 18, 2008, rising from $5 USD—an quantity I managed to efficiently extract from my mother and father every month with precocious, youthful guile—to $5.95 USD.
Jagex hasn’t made any response to issues over the most recent worth hike, and contemplating how the subscription charge has solely gone in a single route since 2008, I do not think about it’s going to stroll this one again. I’m by no means going to have the ability to persuade my mother to re-up my account at this fee.