Jagex Faces Backlash After Generative AI Slips Into RuneFest Trailer

RuneFest is supposed to be the one weekend a year when the RuneScape community gets to celebrate its games and hear what comes next. This time, Jagex has found itself answering questions about generative AI instead.

The British developer, best known for RuneScape and Old School RuneScape, used its annual convention to reveal new material across its portfolio. One of those reveals, a recent trailer, has drawn criticism after viewers spotted signs that generative AI had been used in its production. The discovery was unexpected, and it has soured the mood around an event built on community goodwill.

The reaction fits a pattern across the industry. Players have grown increasingly alert to AI-generated art, voice work and video in marketing material, and studios that get caught using it tend to face a swift response on social media and forums. For a company like Jagex, the stakes are particularly high. RuneScape's audience is famously devoted, many players have stuck with the games for over two decades, and the community has a long record of pushing back when it feels the developer has strayed from what makes the games special.

That history matters here. Jagex has spent years rebuilding trust with fans after past controversies, and RuneFest is the centerpiece of that effort, a place for direct contact between the team and the people who play. Having an AI-related row land in the middle of it is an awkward outcome, regardless of how large or small the AI contribution turned out to be.

What remains unclear is how much of the trailer relied on generative tools, and whether the use came from Jagex itself or from an outside partner producing the footage. Those details will shape how the community judges the studio. Fans tend to be more forgiving of a clear explanation and a promise to change course than of silence or vague wording.

For now, the episode serves as another reminder for developers: even a small amount of generative AI in promotional content can become the main story. Studios that want to avoid that outcome need to be upfront about their tools and sure of their pipeline before the trailer goes public, particularly when speaking to an audience as invested as RuneScape's.

Jagex has an opportunity to address the concerns openly and put the focus back on the games it came to RuneFest to show off. How it responds will go a long way toward deciding whether this is a brief stumble or a lingering sore spot.