Stage
RuneFest
Named in the public announcement Still open
Jagex gave the first look at RS4 at RuneFest. The weekend was in Birmingham, and the news is dated Monday, 5 October 2026. The showing was a first glimpse. The game is a few years away. Much more will come next year about the world, the game, the team, and how to get involved.
The livestream is the official recording of the event, not the concept film. The film is a separate short piece. The sequence is a weekend on stage, news on Monday 5 October 2026, and a forward look to next year. Over 6,000 fans were at the NEC for that weekend.
RuneFest weekend
First glimpse on stage
The show returned to Birmingham, and on stage the RS4 showing was a first glimpse of a game that is still a few years away.
Monday, 5 October 2026
Written account
The weekend was written up that Monday: a fourth RuneScape MMO, still early, and still without a final name.
5 October 2026
The news itself
The same date carries the working title, the Ashenfall setting, the three principles, and the questions still open.
Next year
Much more promised
Next year brings much more about the world, the game, the team, and how to get involved. That is not a launch date.
First look on stage
RuneFest is where the project stopped being an internal prototype and became something a room full of people could hear. The showing was called the first glimpse. The phrase does double duty. It says this is the earliest public look, and it says you should not treat the look as a finished game. The concept film and the spoken news landed in the same weekend.
First look does not mean the stage listed combat abilities. The news that belongs to the stage is the shape of the project: a new RuneScape MMORPG, Unreal Engine, three principles, Ashenfall in the Sixth Age, and a wait of years. The livestream is the way to hear the room. Setting, principles, and the questions left open are the way to separate what was said from what the film merely showed.
The room heard a first glimpse of a game still years from a login. Over 6,000 fans were in the NEC in Birmingham for the wider weekend, and the RS4 segment was one part of that show. The film's flaming 4 and the spoken working title arrived together. Neither one was a client.
Birmingham weekend
RuneFest returned to Birmingham that weekend, at the NEC, with over 6,000 fans. The city and the building pin the reveal to a real event rather than to a trailer dropped with no date. If you were there, the first glimpse was a stage segment inside a larger show. If you were not, the livestream is how you hear the room, and 5 October 2026 is the date of the news.
The weekend also explains why dates cluster without becoming a release date. The show unfolded across the weekend, and the news itself is dated Monday, 5 October 2026. It is one reveal. None of those dates is a day you can log in. The game is still a few years away, which is a different kind of calendar from a festival weekend.
Birmingham and the NEC pin the weekend. Monday, 5 October 2026 pins the written news. Treat every date in that cluster as the date of the telling, not as three different games and not as a launch. The fourth MMO was shown once, to a room, and then written down.
The dated recap
Monday, 5 October 2026 is the date of the news. A fourth MMO in the RuneScape franchise was unveiled, and its final name was still open. The same day carries the working title, the setting, and the principles, and also the event: Birmingham, the NEC, a crowd of over 6,000, the claim that this was the biggest RuneFest, and a look ahead to next year.
The event and the five commitments are two halves of one weekend. The event is Birmingham, the NEC, and the crowd. The commitments are the working title, Unreal Engine, the three principles, Ashenfall, and the wait. Mixing them carelessly is how 'as-yet-unnamed' gets lost under a headline that already says RuneScape 4. The final name stays open even while RS4 is already in use.
Remember the room and the game as two scales from the same date. Biggest RuneFest, over 6,000 fans, NEC, Birmingham: that is the event. RS4, Unreal Engine, Ashenfall, three principles: that is the game. Neither scale is a login date.
Much more next year
The forward look is one of the few calendar sentences on offer. Much more comes next year about the world, the game, the team, and how to get involved. World covers the setting work that Ashenfall only starts. Game covers the systems that are currently open questions: platforms, accounts, membership, progression, combat, and skills. Team covers the people, which fits a project whose team is separate from the three existing ones. Getting involved covers the invitation that already starts with an email.
Much more next year is not 'you can play next year'. The same news says the game is still a few years away. Put the two sentences side by side and the schedule is coherent. Information comes sooner than access. Next year's telling can name a town, a principle's first rule, or a face on the team, and the login can still be later. Plan your curiosity around that gap. Do not plan a launch party around it.
Information next year, access still measured in years: that pair is the only schedule the weekend actually set. No quarter, no beta weekend, and no month was attached to a login. The interest form is how to be known in the meantime. It is not a shortcut past the gap.
The livestream
The official livestream is the long recording of the show. YouTube lists it as 8NHOgek4R18. It starts when you choose to play it. It is a stage recording. The concept teaser is the short film. They answer different questions. The livestream answers what the room heard. The teaser answers what the film showed, from the islands at eight seconds to the flaming 4 at one minute eighteen.
Use the livestream when you need the sentence as it was spoken in the room. The 5 October news agrees with that recording on the big claims. Over 6,000 people in the NEC, a first glimpse, a few years away, much more next year. That is the event. The game itself is still the thing the event was pointing at.
The stage recording is long because the weekend was a whole show. The RS4 glimpse is the segment inside it, not the entire runtime. The short film has no crowd and no host. If you only have a minute, watch the film. If you need the sentence as it was spoken in Birmingham, use the livestream.