After 20 years, RuneScape along with Old School RuneScape will finally be coming to Steam. The RuneScape franchise has always been exclusive to the official website that Jagex created, but now it looks like the developers have finally decided to change their pace.
Specifically, RuneScape has already been out. It debuted on Steam on October 14, 2020. While you can’t farm OSRS gold just yet since Old School RuneScape will be released in 2020 with no definitive date, this is a huge step for Jagex. After all these years they’ve only stuck to their guns. So what does this mean for Jagex and the future of this history-rich franchise? Let’s find out!
Membership
Old School RuneScape and RuneScape are technically free-to-play games, but if you really want to experience what they have to offer, you’ll need to subscribe to membership programs to unlock the “true” content—including the ability to farm OSRS gold in multiple ways.
Since both games will now be on Steam, Jagex will be using this opportunity to offer membership packages through the client. This is essentially the same as what they’ve been offering on their official website for the past few years.
But with the future of OSRS and RuneScape still filled with possibilities, who knows? Maybe one day they’ll lower their prices? Better yet, they may even make the game free-to-play altogether? While that’s still a far cry at this point, Phil Mansell, the CEO of RuneScape, stated that “Jagex is on a mission to bring the RuneScape universe to more players globally”.
Since they’ve already released the two MMORPGs to mobile, releasing their games on Steam is the next logical move. Hopefully, they won’t be any problems in the future since there will no doubt be a lot of players on Steam who will take a look at what RuneScape is all about.
New Players for the Old Game
Steam is the most popular gaming client. Everyone knows what Steam is and no doubt everyone uses it for anything gaming-related. It’s the largest digital distribution platform for all things PC gaming, holding more than half of that market space for the past few years. This results in a large community that tries out various games every single day.
There’s no shortage of players in Steam looking for new free-to-play games to try out whether or not they’re worth their time and possibly investing money in. That’s where the release of Old School RuneScape and RuneScape comes in. Since the games are now released in the largest gaming client, we can expect to see thousands of new players on the servers.
New players mean a wider audience for Jagex, and in turn more profit for them. Inviting new players to the games that have been around for decades is a great way to not only keep the community alive but to also give Jagex all the more reason to step up their content-making.
What’s in Store for the RuneScape Franchise?
The decision for Jagex to further broaden its horizons was a good move in our opinion. By sharing the wonder of what RuneScape and Old School RuneScape has to offer to other players who don’t even know the existence of these two games, they’ll be able to build a community within Steam.
There’s still a bit of uncertainty when it comes to making the whole game possibly free-to-play since Jagex relies heavily on its membership for the company to make money, but the possibility of unlocking every way to farm OSRS gold and the huge list of quests is still there. What are your thoughts on Old School RuneScape and RuneScape going to Steam? Do you like Jagex’s decision or would rather they stick with using their own website? Let us know your thoughts by leaving a comment below!