Maxon discontinues Forger
Maxon’s 2024 demo reel for Forger. The company has just announced that it has ended development of the iPad sculpting app, with users encouraged to switch to ZBrush for iPad.
Maxon has ended development of Forger, its digital sculpting app for iPad.
The app will receive no further updates or bugfixes, and will no longer be available for download or subscription renewals after 10 September 2025.
Existing users are being encouraged to switch to ZBrush for iPad, Maxon’s newer digital sculpting app.
The end of the road for one of the original iPad sculpting apps
The news marks the end for one of the oldest dedicated iPad sculpting apps.
Created by VFX TD and tools developer Javier Edo, it was originally released in 2011, and acquired by Maxon in 2021.
It continued to receive major updates until 2023, but since Forger 2023.4, all of the releases have been described as “bug fixes and performance improvements”, adding no actual new features.
No further updates, and no downloads or subscription renewals after September 2025
Maxon has now announced that it is ending development of Forger.
There will “no longer be any updates, bug fixes or changes” to the software, which will enter “limited maintenance mode” on 10 September 2025.
After that point, it will no longer be possible to download Forger from the App Store, or to renew subscriptions.
Existing subscribers will be able to re-download the app, and continue to receive technical support, until the end of their current subscription term.
Development teams of Forger and ZBrush for iPad now merged
In its online FAQs, Maxon says that it now plans to combine the development teams of Forger and ZBrush for iPad, the new iPad edition of its industry-standard desktop sculpting software.
“By merging our teams, we can leverage Forger’s history on iPad and ZBrush’s sculpting capabilities to introduce more features and innovations, particularly with the Apple Pencil.
“Our goal is to consolidate resources and efforts to enhance the sculpting experience on iPad.”
Users encouraged to switch to ZBrush for iPad
Released last year, ZBrush for iPad offers a wider range of functionality than Forger, and can exchange files with the desktop version of ZBrush.
It has a feature-limited free edition, and the full version is available as part of standard ZBrush subscriptions.
However, if you don’t have a ZBrush subscription, the full version is more expensive than Forger, which costs $1.99/month or $14.99/year for paid subscriptions.
Standalone ZBrush for iPad subscriptions cost $9.99/month or $89.99/year.
Files saved in Forger’s native file format are not “specifically supported” in ZBrush, although it is possible to transfer data from Forger to ZBrush by exporting a .goz file.
Read Maxon’s FAQs about its decision to discontinue development of Forger
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