TL;DR - A chinese company, Shandong Hongda, a company known primarily for its iron ore mining operations, has apparently purchased British games company Jagex for $300 million.

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Quote from Mod Balance on the Runescape Forums -
Hi folks,

As you may have seen through online news articles, Jagex is getting noticed. The company is getting attention from the east and the biggest market in the world, China, is knocking on our door. Jagex’s shareholders have received offers of interest and have responded positively to an approach from a Chinese company.

Jagex is in early stage discussions with the firm in question, but we must stress that they may – or may not – materialise into anything. However, should they come to fruition, it would potentially allow us access to the Asian marketplace to a high level.

What does this mean for the plans we have for our games and our fantastic community? Put simply, our plans, including the launch of NXT, Zeah, Chronicle: RuneScape Legends, God Wars Dungeon 2, and RuneScape: Idle Adventures, remain on track. It is business as usual across Gielinor!

Thanks.

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Sources:
http://massivelyop.com/2016/03/15/jagex-has-been-sold-to-a-chinese-company-for-300m/
http://services.runescape.com/m=forum/forums.ws?14,15,354,65764827,goto,1

As far as I understand from google translating the chinese article, they have until 30th April to come up with $100M or the deal doesn't happen

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=zh-CN&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.sina.com.tw%2Farticle%2F20160315%2F16396677.html&edit-text=&act=url

Mining/smithing rework confirmed

Might be an overreaction but this sounds worrying.

I just find it odd that a Chinese mining company is showing interest in Jagex ... I'd hate to be negative, but I don't want another investor adding more garbage to the game

#TreasureHunter

Ive just read the rsof thread a lot of worried people thats for sure

Ive just read the rsof thread a lot of worried people thats for sure

Can't blame them, when a Chinese mining company shows interest in an MMORPG; two huge different things. But, lets have some faith in Jagex - This could be a good thing if they decide to go through - s'long as they don't add more mico-transactions.

Speaking of microtransactions, saw this on Reddit, had to share..

The MTX increase would likely happen gradually, as it has now, and people would accept it over time as a part of the game, pretty much the way it is now. The OSRS players might have reason to worry though!

R.i.p runescape this is very bad news

But seriously, a Chinese mining company? That's... odd, to say the least. I'm not sure why a mining company would have interest in Jagex, or why they would even consider selling the game.

So from my experience, here's how this could go down.

1. Chinese company acquires Jagex, leaves Western company alone to run the Western business, while they form a new team in China to create a Chinese version of the game.
This is the best situation, it would result in the team currently working on Runescape remaining for the most part, and so we wouldn't really experience a change. The company would be using its expansion into the Chinese market as its route to increased revenue/profits. This is something only a Chinese company can accomplish, because otherwise there's a huge amount of red tape in the legal system surrounding Western companies entering the Chinese market. Let's hope this is the case.

2. Chinese company acquires the company Jagex and begins implementing its own team/marketing methods.
This will result in heavy microtransactions being installed into the game. China has laws that data must be 100% operated within a Chinese company and a foreign company is not permitted to change or implement anything themselves. This means that China would create a dev team in China (cheaper as well) and begin to produce new content for the game that the Western world will have no control of, or impact on. This will typically result in heavy microtransactions and a very buggy gameplay, plus very 'grindy' features. This is one of the worst possible outcomes as it would quickly orientate around generating fresh content to acquire real money, instead of improving the gameplay for players.

Some short points on what we could overall expect and need answers on though:
1. Will there be an increase in microtransactions?
2. Will the Chinese company use the existing team or will they begin to operate out of China? (huge implications if they operate out of China)
3. The game may become entirely 'free-to-play' as is typical in China, removing the subscription model. If this happens you can guarantee that making progress will either take 100x as long or cost you hundreds/thousands
4. We could expect to see a cut back in staff, resulting in quarterly game updates rather than weekly. This will greatly reduce their dev work/cost as well as our increased gameplay.

Overally, I find the prospect of a Chinese company acquiring Jagex very worrying as I've experienced Chinese owned MMOs extensively. Though this could also be a method for the Chinese company getting money out of China and as long as it makes them their money back/breaks even, they'll leave it as it is.

I don't see why you all see this as negative.

The competitive gaming network here is unbelievable. For example, WOW, Diablo 3, Starcraft, LOL and so on. If they can push Runescape towards this (I know the concepts between RS and other games is different), Runescape will have a greater chance of becoming a better game.

Runescape is already damaged, and I can't see them doing much more harm apart from adding more content. With their investment, who knows what can be achieved. It is not like they are going to change the entire game concept.

As for staff changes, it will be cheaper moving Jagex to Asia, however I don't think this will happen. The game is a success in the UK, so they won't bring it out of the UK. They won't take the fish out of the water, however they may buy another tank for the fish to transported into (no idea how I came up with this).

I love the racial comments on other websites about the future of Runescape. Jagex has gone through changes in the past, and not all of them were successful. Having new investors can only be beneficial to the game, especially one that has been in decline the last 5 years.

Runescape is already damaged, and I can't see them doing much more harm apart from adding more content. With their investment, who knows what can be achieved. It is not like they are going to change the entire game concept.

This is something a lot of people neglect because the situation with microtransactions didn't happen over night. On e.g. Reddit (The RS3 one) you will get downvoted if you suggest that the game is pay2win right now, which implies that the popular opinion doesn't even recognise what a huge impact MTX has on the game right now. IVP introduced this MTX and when you consider what RS was like before IVP were owners, you will come to the same realisation that the game is indeed already changed and damaged. The Chinese owners will likely just continue with the MTX to the same gradual degree as IVP has, which means to the average player, this change in ownership will likely go unnoticed.

The thing with Acquisitions is that they depend on the company. For another game I love, League of Legends, they were 100% purchased by a Chinese company and nothing is changing. Everything else is remaining the same, it's just that Eastern countries have trouble getting into Western markets so they acquire games in order to start their approach.

Quote from Mod Pips on the RS Forums;

Hi everyone,

Thanks for all of your comments about yesterday’s news. We realise it may have caught some people by surprise, but we’re excited about what the proposed acquisition could bring to the studio and our capabilities, should it be successful. As Mod Balance mentioned yesterday, negotiations remain at an early stage, and there is no guarantee that anything will come of it.

However, we want to answer your questions about what such an acquisition by the company in China could mean for RuneScape, Old School and our other games. So, with that in mind, I’ll try to answer some of the most frequently asked questions…

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How much communication will there be with the community about the acquisition during the process?
Although the details aren’t a public matter, we will strive to keep you informed. It’s your passion for our games that have made them successful, so will remain engaged with you all and to give updates when there is relevant information to share.

When will we know whether the deal is going ahead?
Negotiations are in initial stages, and there are a lot of moving parts to consider during these talks. However, we expect by the end of April there will be more information on how things are progressing - but please remember that predicting timelines for these things is always difficult, especially when there are numerous regulatory obligations to fulfil along the way.


What plans does the firm have for Jagex and our games?
The most important thing is that it’s business as usual for Jagex and for our games. The studio’s management has always been in charge of decisions relating to the continued development of our titles, and we don’t anticipate that changing. It’s the games and you as the community which have made us successful and the potential investor fully understands this as well. In the event that these negotiations are successful we do not foresee there to be any changes in how we develop and operate the games, and we will remain a Cambridge and UK based developer.

RuneScape is celebrating its 15th anniversary throughout 2016 with a whole host of content and new titles, and we look forward to building upon these successes in the coming years - regardless of the outcome of these current negotiations.


Will this affect the levels of (or add) MTX in the games?
Simply put, no. Our approach to how we charge for the games is based on what we feel is right for each of them and that would stay the same should the acquisition happen. We don’t plan for any significant changes on this front.


Will the investors be involved in the development of Jagex’s games?
Our approach of putting community at the heart of games development is something we hold dear and has been a massive part of why RuneScape continues to be so successful. If the talks result in an acquisition, we expect to continue with this community driven approach in everything we do.


Will this mean there will be more investment in/a reboot of any Jagex games?
We’re already investing heavily in RuneScape as a franchise – big new content for RuneScape and Old School, the big upgrade of the NXT game client, two titles in Chronicle: RuneScape Legends and, through our partnership with Hyper Hippo, RuneScape: Idle Adventures, and even more in the pipeline beyond that. We certainly hope to do even more than this and do more to bring the world of Gielinor to new audiences around the world.