Update, Thursday June 5, 2025: In a statement to GamesIndustry.biz, Jagex said the layoffs were unrelated to the cancelation of Project Zanaris.
The company also said it was unwilling to confirm how many colleagues had been affected at this time "out of respect for those impacted and to allow the process to be handled privately and fairly." Its new structure is expected to be in place by the end of the month.
"As part of our strategy to build the best experiences for players and grow the RuneScape community, we have proposed changes to our operational structure," a Jagex spokesperson told us. "These adjustments are designed to reduce complexity, increase agility, and ensure we are fully focused on the areas that matter most — our games, our players, and our future.
"The vast majority of proposed role reductions are within non-game development and non-player-facing functions, such as operations and administrative support. Our intention is to protect and strengthen the teams directly responsible for delivering value to players.
"We recognise that any change of this nature is difficult, and we are committed to supporting all impacted employees throughout the transition," the statement concluded.
Original story:
Jagex has "paused" development of its RuneScape community servers project, Zanaris, resulting in an unspecified number of redundancies.The studio itself didn't directly acknowledge the layoffs in its statement, instead stressing to players the impact of the changes on its games and community.
"The incredible talent behind the project have been redistributed across Jagex or directly moved to Old School to help with ongoing improvements and exciting new initiatives," the statement said, although players familiar with the development team noted some names were missing from the sign-off at the end of the statement, including lead game designer Mod Jack and principal game designer Mod Timbo (thanks, Eurogamer).
Shortly afterwards, a player noted Mod Timbo's X account, @jagextimbo, had disappeared, and a mod working on the RuneScape subreddit responded to say they "felt [it was] right" to confirm that "there have unfortunately been job reductions at Jagex."
"It felt right to drop in on this and provide some level of comment to what’s going on as soon as I could. It will be limited, with respect to those involved and their privacy, as I hope you can understand," explained moderator Mod Hooli.
"Yes, there have unfortunately been job reductions at Jagex. These have been made as part of changes in a company restructure as Jagex puts more emphasis on RuneScape games and community growth.
"The majority of roles are from non-game dev and non-player-facing areas. There are some exceptions within the RS team as part the company's focus on a streamlined development approach."
Hooli added that there was no change in direction or the roadmap of RuneScape 3, and the team was "still committed to growing this game and investing in it."
"What matters most right now are the people affected by this change. The studio’s focus is to support those affected, as is mine," they concluded. "Now is the time we put them first and do everything we can to help them out. Hope that provides what little context I can offer."
In the first five months of 2025 alone, around 2200 developers have lost their jobs, with cuts and closures at Freejam, Splash Damage, Piranha Games, Jar of Sparks, Ubisoft, ProbablyMonsters, Iron Galaxy, Sumo Group, Liquid Sword, NetEase Games, Toast Interactive, Night School Studio, Striking Distance, Until Dawn remake developers, Ballistic Moon, Eidos Montréal, PlaySide, AppLovin, Nerial, Reality Labs, and, most recently, there have been multiple cuts at EA, including Respawn, and People Can Fly.
