Jagex working 'really hard' to have RuneScape on tablets by the end of 2013

In the MMO family tree RuneScape is a kindly old uncle. A little grey around the edges perhaps, but full of wonderful stories of adventure, excitement, and the clash of digital swords.

We first got rumbling from Jagex, the developer behind RuneScape since it first saw the light of day in 2001, that the game was on its way to tablets in the middle of last year. Then everything went a bit quiet.

It's all loud again now though, with Jagex revealing plans to bring the game to tablets by the end of 2013.

Hot on the heels of RuneScape 3, which takes the browser-based MMO into previously uncharted HTML5-powered territory, Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard has told IGN that a tablet version of the game should be available before the year is done.

"We're working really, really hard to do tablets by Q4 this year," he explained in the interview. "I see [smartphones] as a window into the game, so I think even mobile is right for RuneScape, but it's probably as a subset or augmentation of the game rather than the core game experience."

So it looks like smartphones won't be getting the full Runescape experience, but that tablets, which Gerhard described as "more akin to your laptop", will be getting the whole package.

His thoughts were echoed by the chief marketing officer of Jagex, David Solari, who enthused about the challenge behind taking a traditional desktop game and making it work on portable devices.

"I think it stretches the imagination of what's possible on tablet right now. I mean, RuneScape would easily be the most ambitious game ever put on tablet, right? So, that excites us."

We've no word yet on what platforms the game will arrive on, but we wouldn't bet against iPad and Android tablets leading the way.