Runescape Successor Gets Canceled
Mark Gerhard, Jagex’s CEO, has confirmed that MechScape has been canceled. According to Mark, the decision was a very expensive one but it was done for the right reasons.
“Initially the reason for building MechScape was that we would learn all the lessons from RuneScape having run it for around four years at the time.
“It got near completion and we discovered, oops, it didn’t do all of those things that we wanted it to. So we went back to the original design document and said ‘let’s do it again’.”
Cancelling the project at such a late stage has made for an expensive learning curve, admitted Gerhard, although he agreed the company’s continued financial success helped the situation.
“Yes, it’s a luxury that we are doing well and we can afford to make the decision. I didn’t make the decision lightly because it’s effectively cost us tens of millions of pounds. Maybe more.”
That was a very risky move but it shows how the company cared for the players. Only time will tell how smart this move really was. Read more of the interview here.
My little brother will be disappointed by this. He, and most of his gamer friends actually, love Runescape. It was around when they got into PC gaming but couldn’t afford to invest any money in it.