Post-Monetization Survey, RuneScape Hikes Subscription Rates

Last week, I wrote about Jagex’s intent to establish a “Community Consultation” team in order to review RuneScape‘s monetization and gather feedback on potential changes to enhance the “player-friendly” experience, whilst still ensuring profitability and future development of the MMORPG. The formation of this team majorly results from a recent survey regarding RuneScape 3’s Treasure Hunter loot boxes and the feedback obtained from that.

The survey posed an intriguing question— would players be willing to pay a higher subscription fee if the Treasure Hunter feature was removed?

The survey pertained exclusively to RuneScape 3, however, the announcement about the Community Consultation group was published on the RuneScape platform. It’s clear that creating such a group and achieving meaningful feedback (if any action can be taken at all) would take some time. Meanwhile, there’s a change coming from Jagex that players aren’t exactly thrilled about.

RuneScape’s subscription fees are set to increase, and as far, there’s no indication that the Treasure Hunter feature is being removed.

This increase arrives two years following the previous increase in RuneScape’s subscription fees and will affect all subscription plans— monthly, semi-annual, and annual.

Interestingly, however, if you’re presently paying the monthly fee of $12.49 or the discounted six-month fee of $59.99, you can maintain those rates as long as your subscription doesn’t expire for more than 14 days. This effectively gives you a “grandfather” rate. Should your subscription lapse, unfortunately, you will need to adopt the new rates of $13.99 monthly or $71.94 for the semi-annual bundle.

The current annual rate of $79.99 doesn’t have any such provision. If you’re a current annual subscriber, when your annual subscription is due, you must pay the new $99.48 price. There’s no “grandfather” rate for that package. However, you do have the option to convert your annual membership into a monthly or semi-annual membership at the “grandfathered” rates, as long as you don’t lapse for over 14 days.

The new rates will come into effect on September 27th, a month from now.

As one would expect, this isn’t being well-received by RuneScape players who understandably see the formation of the Community Consultation group happening after these price increases, as a slap on the face. This could potentially result in an exodus of accounts particularly those that contribute significantly towards financing RuneScape. Increasing prices doesn’t necessarily generate more revenue if there are fewer people subscribing.

This is intriguingly happening just before the introduction of Group Ironman. Additionally, RuneScape players are required to pay for extras such as advanced stat and skill tracking through RuneMetrics, a useful app provided by Jagex for tracking EXP, time to level and various other game stats. While some stat tracking is offered for free, extensive tracking requires an additional “Pro” fee.

It seems the era of RuneScape as a more affordable MMO option is coming to an end?