Update: Jagex released an update announcing that 117Scape's Runelite HD plugin will be released on Monday, September 13th!

Original article: Today, Jagex backtracked their decision made on Tuesday to ban 3rd party HD-clients, announcing in a new statement that they have heard the communities feedback loud and clear and will be allowing projects like RuneLite HD to go forward. The decision follows the huge backlash from the old school Runescape community against the original ban, which shut down popular community projects like RuneLite HD after thousands of development hours.

"Yesterday we aimed to clarify our stance on third-party HD clients and other projects that seek to radically change the visual appearance of the game," the Old School Runescape team explained. "We hear your feedback loud and clear and we’ve been discussing that feedback all day and, while discussions continue, we absolutely intend to act on it."

On Tuesday, the team announced they had contacted developers of HD projects, demanding they immediately stop development on their projects due to their team's exploration of their own, first-party HD client. 

The Old School RS team stated in that original statement, "whilst we know that the news might be disappointing to those of you who were following the third-party projects closely, we hope that you understand our position and we look forward to working with you as the project evolves!"

This announcement drew immediate harsh criticism from the Old School RS community, since the decision directly banned the release of RuneLite HD, a third-party plug that developers 117scape and Adam spent over 2,000 hours over two years developing that was set to release this week.

In a tweet that garnered over 10,000 likes, 177scape explained "Septemeber 6th, 2021, RuneLIte HD would have been released. . . Yet, at the eleventh hour, Jagex contacted me asking me to take it down in light of the reveal that they have a similarly-themed graphical improvement project. . . I offered a compromise of removing my project from RuneLite once they are ready to release their's, in addition to allowing them collaborative control over the visual direction of my project. They declined outright."

Numerous Runescape influencers like Settled, Faux, Exl, and many more came to support 117 in response to the Tweet, enough that they were able to sway Jagex to reverse course on this decision. 

Jagex said in their statement walking back their announcement that, "our conversations today have also included 117Scape and Adam from RuneLite and we are actively exploring options on how we can work together to offer 117Scape’s plug-in as a bridge until our own version is ready for release."

While most of the feedback and backlash was respectful and appropriate, Jagex reported that many individual staff members on social media received "unacceptable levels of abuse" in response to their original announcement. They condemned those inappropriate comments.

117 put out a celebratory Tweet following Wednesday's decision, saying "Jagex has reached out to me to establish ongoing communications regarding how we can move forward."

117 also took the time to shout out the Old School team, and join them in condemning those who harassed members of that team, saying, "Continue to make yourself heard but please remember to be respectful of any Jagex employees you interact with or talk about as they are very much listening."

With Wednesday's news, Old School RS players can expect to get their hands on the RuneLite HD client very soon.