Jagex pulls RuneScape trailer over generative AI art

Jagex has pulled a RuneScape trailer after players spotted generative AI artefacts in it, and the studio says the incident exposes a gap in how it reviews work from outside partners.

What Jagex said

The trailer promoted Dragon Slayer 2, the long-awaited RuneScape 3 quest revealed at RuneFest 2026. A Jagex moderator writing as Mod Anvii confirmed the removal on Reddit, saying the studio was aware of the concerns raised about the trailer and had taken it down "while we investigate urgently", adding that "among other things, there's a sixth finger and, well, that's pretty hard to explain away". Jagex says the video was produced by "a trusted external partner who had explicitly confirmed GenAI would not be used".

The studio's position

"Our position is clear at Jagex: we don't use GenAI to create our games, artwork or creative assets, and will not knowingly allow it to be used on our behalf," the studio said. It added that this was the second time in quick succession that concerns about generative AI had surfaced through partners it trusted, and that the pattern "highlights an issue with our own processes which we must address". Jagex says it will overhaul those review processes immediately after RuneFest, and that it will work with and commission creators from the community so the Dragon Slayer II story is told to the standard the update deserves.

An audit was already under way

The earlier incident involved a RuneScape collaboration with the lifestyle brand 100 Thieves, which has said that "AI has no place in our apparel design". Jagex's public commitment on the subject is not new. Earlier this year James Dobrowski, the studio's senior vice president of product, told GamesIndustry.biz that no generative AI would ever be present in "any asset that a player can touch, hear or feel", and that the company was auditing external partners to keep it out of its games and marketing. Players spotted the artefacts anyway, which is the part that will sting.

Our opinion

The interesting failure here is procedural rather than artistic. Jagex's rule was clear, its partners had signed up to it, and the trailer still shipped with an extra finger, which means the sign-off was a formality rather than a check. Committing to community creators is a sound correction, because it replaces an anonymous vendor pipeline with people who have a stake in the result and who will notice a six-fingered hand within seconds of the upload going live. It is also worth saying plainly that the people who caught this were players, not staff, and that the fix Jagex has promised - commissioning and crediting human artists - costs money the studio could have avoided spending by staying quiet. Paying it anyway is the part that deserves credit.