Jagex Confirms RS4 Development in Unreal Engine Starting Ashenfall Sixth Age

The announcement at RuneFest positions RS4 as the fourth RuneScape generation after RuneScape, Old School RuneScape, and Dragonwilds. It begins in Ashenfall, a region introduced in Dragonwilds, and expands across Gielinor over multiple years. Permanent progression and integrity systems remain core design constraints. No replacement of existing titles occurs; separate teams continue roadmaps for the other three products.

Unreal Engine adoption follows internal lessons from Dragonwilds on rendering and networking. Prior RuneScape titles used custom Java and C++ stacks with documented scalability ceilings at 2000+ concurrent players per world. Community co-development protocols, refined through Old School polls and RuneScape feedback loops, will apply from pre-alpha. No platform, account, or combat data has been released.

Operationally this extends Jagex revenue diversification beyond subscription renewals of legacy clients. Early reveal commits the studio to sustained community input cycles before vertical slice completion. Next milestone disclosure is scheduled for 2025 with concrete details on membership integration and initial playable builds.

Development timeline targets multiple years to first release. Asset reuse from Dragonwilds reduces initial world-building overhead while new engine demands full animation and physics reimplementation.