Just a couple of days ago, Gotcha Gotcha Games, the developer behind RPG Maker, revealed plans to permanently close down the RPG Maker Forums as part of its shift to the newly introduced RPG MAKER GUILD platform. New user registrations have already been halted, and the forums will transition to a read-only format starting June 18, with the site’s complete shutdown set for December 11. Furthermore, all account details and forum posts from the existing RPG Maker community will be permanently erased and will not be transferred to the new platform.
The widespread acclaim for the RPG Maker series owes much to the vibrant community collaboration that has thrived over the years, with the RPG Maker Forums serving as a hub for nearly 15 years of valuable insights, custom assets, and plugins. It’s no surprise, then, that users expressed significant dissatisfaction with the decision to erase the entire website without proper archiving.
In response to the community’s concerns, Gotcha Gotcha Games announced on June 12 that it would modify its earlier stance, confirming that both the Japanese and English sections of the RPG Maker Forums would be archived in the coming weeks. The developers stated via X that they are actively refining the methods for preserving community assets.
Although the specifics of the archiving process remain unclear, the RPG Maker team has pledged to provide further details as soon as they are available.
Initially, Gotcha Gotcha Games acknowledged the severe impact that the loss of community-generated knowledge would have, while also explaining that traditional archiving posed challenges due to copyright complexities. Since each post or asset is owned by its original creator, relocating or reposting content could potentially violate copyright laws.
With this in mind, the developers are now exploring solutions to archive historical assets securely without infringing on copyright regulations.