Jagex is making an open-world survival game set in ‘RuneScape’ universe

UK developer Jagex has announced that it is currently working on an open-world survival game, built in Unreal Engine 5 and set in the world of RuneScape.

On Tuesday (June 21), Jagex announced three new hires that will be working on an upcoming game from the studio.

While Jagex has not shared too many details just yet, it did reveal that it is currently developing “an undisclosed Unreal Engine 5 open world survival game within the RuneScape universe”.

With this upcoming game, Jagex aims to grow the RuneScape franchise “into new audiences on desktop and console platforms,” which suggests that besides launching on PC, the studio’s next project will appear on Xbox, PlayStation or even Nintendo Switch platforms.

In a statement, Jagex CEO Phil Mansell said the project is “soon-to-be-revealed” and explained why the company is branching out:

“With the ongoing success of RuneScape, Old School RuneScape, and the buzz of activity for our third-party publishing arm Jagex Partners, now is an ideal time to scale up our new game development teams who are bringing a whole new gameplay and visual experience to the legendary RuneScape universe.”

Of the three new hires announced by Jagex, two of them – Géry Arduino and Maddie Harper – previously worked at Ubisoft. Harper has worked on titles such as Watch Dogs Legion and Rainbow Six Extraction, and will be a senior producer at Jagex, while Arduino – with credits on Assassin’s Creed and Ghost Recon – will work as a principal technical artist.

The third hire, Guilhem Barloy, will work as the associate technical director for this game, and has been involved in titles including DriveClub and Little Big Planet Karting.

In other gaming news, a developer who worked on Sonic Origins has said that his team is “very unhappy” with the finished game, and claims Sega made “major modifications” to the build he handed in.