Jagex Will Restore Some RuneScape Accounts Next Week, Announces Compensation

As the locked-out RuneScape accounts saga enters its fourth week, Jagex finally has some good news to report. The details were laid out in a livestream earlier today and summed up in a post on the RuneScape site.

This week's special beta has let the dev team see the results of its "hugely complex work," with most affected accounts able to log into the test server and be "in a close to or as expected state." As a result, Jagex is pleased to say that it will begin to return some accounts to full functionality early next week but warns that this is "the start of a journey rather than the finish line." Emails will be sent out to players whose accounts will be fully restored.

Everything won't be perfect, though. Even with some "mind-boggling complex workarounds," many players' banks are in a disheveled state. More concerning, some Perks will be lost or reverted to February 8 (though there is some additional work being done to minimize or eliminate this), and player-owned farm and Ranch Out Of Time progress will also likely be reverted to February 8.

Talk then shifted to compensation. Impacted members have already received an additional month of subscription time. Jagex is handing out an additional month and will compensate players further for any additional time lost. Impacted members and F2P players alike will receive double daily keys for a month, and a substantial "Goodwill Bundle" will be credited to the accounts starting on April 6. All players, impacted or not, can also look forward to "Awesome April," with weekly themed in-game events starting on the 12th.

Finally, under the category of "Oh... And One More Thing," Jagex is promising "something a little extra special," granting "special wishes" to everyone at the end of April. Good on them for doing so much to make good with players, but if I had my wish, it would be for Jagex's murky ownership situation to finally be resolved.