Runescape is increasing its membership subscription costs, and players aren't happy: 'Inflation my a**'

Earlier this week, Runescape developer Jagex announced upcoming pricing increases for Runescape membership costs. On September 27, 2024, the price of a membership subscription will increase from $12.49 USD per month to $13.99 USD per month. A premier 12 month subscription, which includes additional in-game bonuses for subscribing for an entire year at once, will increase in price from $79.99 USD annually to $99.48 USD annually.

Players currently subscribed on monthly or 6-month intervals will be able to continue paying their current "Grandfather Rate" for as long as they maintain their subscription. The Grandfather Rate is unavailable for players with annual premium memberships.

Jagex defended the price hike in its pricing change announcement, saying, "Membership pricing has been unchanged in the last two years despite recent global inflationary pressures." . According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, US consumer prices rose 3.2% from July 2022 to July 2023 and  2.9% from July 2023 to July 2024, for a total of 6.1% over the last two years. Meanwhile, Jagex's September price changes will increase the cost of a monthly Runescape membership by around 12%. Worse, the cost of an annual premium subscription—the subscription tier that isn't eligible for grandfathering—is increasing more than 24%.

Technically, Runescape can be played for free, but the vast majority of in-game content is gated behind a membership subscription. Crucially, however, you can only have a single character on a Runescape account. For many Old School Runescape players, monthly membership prices being within $2 of a World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy 14 subscription—both AAA games where you can have dozens of characters—is a value proposition that's approaching absurdity.

On Reddit, players are expressing an unsurprising outrage. "Nah, this one isn't okay," says redditor ALegendsTale, noting that the price change and other service frustrations have followed Jagex's recent sale to private equity firms. "The price increases in the last few years have gone overboard." 

Elsewhere, modern Runescape players couldn't help but notice that the price changes are hitting just before the addition of the eagerly awaited Group Ironman mode. Another redditor was more frank with their assessment: "Inflation my ass."

The September 2024 price changes will mark Runescape's sixth membership price increase. Jagex's first price change took place on August 18, 2008, increasing from $5 USD—an amount I managed to successfully extract from my parents each month with precocious, youthful guile—to $5.95 USD.

Jagex hasn't made any response to concerns over the latest price hike, and considering how the subscription fee has only gone in one direction since 2008, I don't imagine it'll walk this one back. I'm never going to be able to convince my mom to re-up my account at this rate.