Skip to main content

Goodbye, old friend: Online game ‘RuneScape Classic’ to shut down after 17 years

Image used with permission by copyright holder

RuneScape Classic, the original version of the popular and free MMORPG, is shutting down after 17 years. The development team at Jagex announced the news in a blog post.

Recommended Videos

“For many years, we’ve left all of the content from the original game available to play. [While] it’s seemingly been happily plodding along since then, it is with great sadness that we have taken the difficult decision to say goodbye to RuneScape Classic, which we will be winding down over the next three months.”

RuneScape Classic servers have lived on through the game’s various iterations (RuneScape 2 in 2004, RuneScape 3 and Old School RuneScape in 2013).

Jagex explained that its development tools no longer work with the classic servers, so there’s simply no way for bugs to be fixed. Although one expects a somewhat less refined experience when logging onto the classic servers, the biggest problem that has plagued RuneScape Classic is that the development team cannot address nefarious behavior.

“The truth is that bots and lack of community safety tools are serious problems, however, we also feel that we can no longer offer long-term service reliability due to the growing risk of unrecoverable game-breaking bugs.”

The game’s bugs and bots are multiplying, which obviously threatens the experience and the game’s integrity. The development team stressed that it doesn’t have the tools to fix these issues.

Thankfully, the plug won’t be pulled immediately. RuneScape Classic servers will remain online until August 6, so you have plenty of time to get nostalgic (and wade in a sea of bots).

Naturally, this news probably doesn’t affect the average RuneScape player. The majority of RuneScape players are split between two versions of the game, neither of which are the original. Old School RuneScape, which resembles what the game was like in 2007, will continue to receive updates and remain online. And the current version of RuneScape (known as RuneScape 3) is alive and well, too.

Still, it feels like the end of an era. RuneScape Classic may not be pretty and yes, it’s littered with bugs, but it’s what started it all. And soon it will be wiped from the internet.

Steven Petite
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Steven is a writer from Northeast Ohio currently based in Louisiana. He writes about video games and books, and consumes…
Marvel Cosmic Invasion has some surprising Marvel vs. Capcom DNA
Storm, Venom, and Nova fight enemies in Marvel Cosmic Invasion.

How do you make a retro beat-em-up feel new? That’s a question that the team at Dotemu has had to ask itself a lot in the past five years. The studio has found tremendous success ushering in a new age of throwback brawlers, from Streets of Rage 4 to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge. Its efforts are only doubling, as it is currently juggling three 2D projects between multiple development studios. Each one has to find a way to do something a little new in a genre that doesn’t feel like it can flex too much more.

And yet, Marvel Cosmic Invasion still finds a way. At this year’s Summer Game Fest, I tried the latest project from Streets of Rage 4 developer Tribute Games. While it's another classic brawler filled with nostalgic pixel art and a wide roster of superheroes, it infuses that tried and true formula with just enough fighting game DNA to keep it distinct.

Read more
The Samsung Odyssey Neo G7 gaming monitor is 55% off, but there’s a catch
Samsung's Odyssey Neo G7 on a desk.

The 43-inch Samsung Odyssey Neo G7 gaming monitor is an excellent display for gamers, but it's not always available with a discount from monitor deals, and it's pretty expensive at its original price of $1,000. However, we've found a way for you to get it with a 55% discount, and that's to take advantage of Samsung's open box pricing so that you'll only have to pay $450. That's a massive $550 in savings, and you don't have to worry about the quality of the gaming monitor -- open box products still look brand new and are tested to be working properly. You need to hurry though, as stocks are limited!

Why you should buy the 43-inch Samsung Odyssey Neo G7 gaming monitor

Read more
What is Wordle and how do you learn to play it?
Woman playing Wordle on her smartphone.

If you've seen those green squares flooding your social media feed or keep hearing your friends and family talk about keeping their Wordle streaks alive, you're probably curious what this game is that has the world hooked. Wordle hit the mainstream in 2022 and has since become part of most people's daily routine. What makes it so addictive is how challenging it can be to solve a puzzle, which makes it important to know the best Wordle starting words or to check out some Wordle answers and hints for any given day's game. Wordle isn't as complicated as Connections, Strands, NYT Crossword, or the Mini Crossword, but it is a little tricky if you've never played it before. I'll go over all the rules and information you need to become a Wordle pro in no time.

What is Wordle?

Read more