War, economic uncertainty, collapsing guardrails of democracy—these are the kinds of issues that keep many people up at night these days. But Jon Bellamy, CEO of RuneScape studio Jagex, knows of one very familiar virtual space you can return to when the real world feels a little too scary.
Bellamy is doing his part to help us navigate the madness of today by following through on Jagex’s earlier commitment to delete RuneScape’s long-festering microtransaction shop, Treasure Hunter.
Late last year, Jagex opened the decision up to the public, pledging to remove the controversial cash shop if 100,000 players voted in favor. As it turned out, more than 120,000 microtransaction-averse players sent their message loud and clear: do it, Jagex. And that’s exactly what the studio is doing next week on January 19.
In an interview with Knowledge, Bellamy explained why it was important to let players have such a significant role in deciding whether a key revenue source should be kept or abandoned.
“[We] put our communities right at the heart of everything we do, as we always have,” he said. “It’s not just a cliché or a tagline—that’s literally how we run the business and how we build stuff. Our bet is that if we continue to do that, and we do it with high transparency and authenticity, that will pay dividends.”
Beyond earning goodwill with players, Bellamy emphasized that a key part of RuneScape’s identity is its “purity.” This taps into a deep well of nostalgia many players share for summer nights in the early 2000s—times that felt bright, safe, and warm for those of us now in our 30s.
“We’re openly against generative AI. We’re openly against microtransactions. We’ve just ripped them out,” he added. “We’re really trying to be a safe haven, a storm-weathering bet against the falling trust in the world, and that has been driving huge amounts of growth.”
Truthfully, I’ve always been an Ultima Online diehard—that’s my MMO safe space—but I’ll admit, Bellamy’s vision for RuneScape in 2026 is mighty tempting.
Apparently, all you have to do to win over an audience in their 30s is openly denounce generative AI and microtransactions. Come to think of it, condemning Labubus wouldn’t hurt either.
https://www.gamesradar.com/games/mmo/after-14-years-runescapes-awful-microtransaction-shop-is-going-away-next-week-because-jagex-wants-the-mmo-to-be-a-safe-haven-a-storm-weathering-bet-against-the-falling-trust-in-the-world/