Everything ends eventually, right?
Old-School RuneScape is part of the multi-million RuneScape franchise. It’s based on an old build of the game and eventually grew into its own game, separate from the mainline one. Some players prefer it to the technologically and graphically advanced version, even! They’d like to farm and spend OSRS gold instead of the RS3 one.
Still, that doesn’t stop making people wonder if it will end one day. Will Jagex ever shut down OSRS?
Reasons Why Games Shut Down
If we look at the common reasons why live-service games end up shutting down, there are a few of them. The one companies would care about the most is revenue. When a game doesn’t live up to its profit margins, they’d want just to pull the plug instead of draining their funds to continue the service.
The reason for the low profits stems from having a too small player population or bad monetization policies. One example of the latter would be predatory practices that don’t give you what you pay for. The balance may be hard to achieve, but it can be done.
Low revenues can also come from poorly thought-out designs for cosmetics, unfair pricing, or the game isn’t that interesting to players.
Another reason a game could shut down is that the developers have reached the end of their planned content. Without further updates to activities, the game has reached its ‘end,’ and players will stop playing since there’s nothing to do. This can be done to promote a sequel game that uses different hardware and software from its predecessor, meaning they have to program things from scratch. It could be for other reasons, too, not entirely because of the player count or revenue.
So Will OSRS Shut Down?
Not anytime soon. OSRS is enjoying waves of new players due to the success of OSRS Mobile. Plus, long-time players find reasons to return to the game and start playing again. While some quit, they’re not enough to reduce the player count to worrying levels.
Its monetization exists in membership, and it’s clear that Jagex isn’t hurting for profits. Proof of this includes not having microtransactions besides subscriptions when its counterpart has them. There are also no plans (so far) to add it to OSRS, which means they’re sticking to a membership-only monetization scheme.
Other than that, players have a semblance of control over the content in OSRS. They don’t have that in RS3, which could be one reason players like it better than the other. Because the players are satisfied with the handling of the content, it could have better player retention. That’s not to say that RS3 is a lousy game. It just attracts different player types.
If you consider the revenue since it only has one monetization mode, it’s less than RS3. However, considering the whole franchise, RuneScape has many other projects and products that can cover things. Those can fund OSRS for a long time. It will not be forever, but a long, long time.
What Will It Take for OSRS to Stop?
One, the players have to lose interest. This will start a chain of events that will
Lower the player population
Reduce the profits from the game
Make the developers and the publisher lose interest in continuing to make content for it
This is an improbable scenario considering the current circumstances. Again, there are waves of new players daily, and the player count increases. The game also gets additional content regularly, proving that the developers are willing and interested to continue making content.
Another way for OSRS to shut down is to have the higher-ups (not just the devs, they also have their own bosses) discontinue the franchise. There could be many reasons for this other than those stated above. A possible explanation is the bosses wanted them to focus on a new IP or something, leaving a skeleton crew for the game. If they handled informing the player base poorly, it would make them angry and unwilling to return when things stabilize.
If the devs decide to discontinue the franchise, that would mean that they’re the ones to lose interest. Otherwise, the reason could be irreconcilable differences or a falling out. This could be one of the worst endings for the game. This ends RuneScape as we knew it, and even a different studio buying the IP won’t be the same.
In line with that, if the developers make an unforgivable mistake that
Old-School RuneScape is Safe, For Now
The game is safe, and it will be for the near future. However, all things end eventually, and OSRS is no exception. We don’t know how, but we know it will. Still, it will be a bit further down the line as things are alright currently.
There’s no need to worry, as the gaming community supports the game and franchise. It’s not going down anytime soon. We can continue farming for OSRS gold and buying up OSRS items for sale for some time yet.
Have fun playing OSRS!
