New RPG Maker Software Soon?

So, out of curiosity, I was looking at RPG Maker release dates and I think we might be due a new entry sometime soon. There seems to be a new version of RPG Maker ever 3 or 4 years, assuming the dates I found are accurate:

RPG Maker 95 - Released March 1997 (I'm assuming the 95 refers to the Windows 95 operating system rather than the release year)
RPG Maker 2000 - Released April 2000
RPG Maker 2003 - Released May 2002
RPG Maker XP - Released July 2004
RPG Maker VX - Released December 2007
RPG Maker VX Ace - Released December 2011
RPG Maker MV - Released December 2015

If the trend continued, we could reasonably expect to see a new RPG Maker sometime in 2019. Now, it can be argued that 2003 was just an upgrade of 2000, likewise VX Ace is just a beefed up VX so maybe this will be an improved MV rather than a completely new entry but even so I'll be keeping my eyes open.

Do you think there's anything to this or is it just wild baseless speculation?

Also, what would you guys like to see? Personally, my wishlist would be:

• Publish games to PS4, Xbox One, and Switch in addition to the current options
• Default game resolution to be 16:9
  
• Native support for parallax mapping and fogs so we're not reliant on community-made solutions for these anymore
• The return of XP's three layered manual mapping rather than this awkward predictive stuff
• Maybe some neat Mode 7 or line scrolling effects

Seeing as they keep making projects for it, I'd say it's a cash cow, They also making a ported version of MV to the game consoles, So I'd say It's just wild speculation.

MV is still receiving update, idk why they would make a new one. The other series got released bcz it's an upgrade of previous version. And bcz the previous version weren't getting update.

Since MV is getting ported to consoles, there will probably be at least 2 more years before the next version so that the next version doesn't compete with potential sales of the currently planned port (assuming that the next version will be also be ported within a year or two of the PC/Mac release).

Dante RPG Maker- February 1990
RPG Maker 98- December 1992
RPG Maker 98II- July 1996
RPG Maker 95- March 1997
RPG Maker 2000- April 2000
RPG Maker 2003- December 2002
RPG Maker XP- July 2004
RPG Maker VX- December 2007
RPG Maker VXAce- December 2011
RPG Maker MV- October 2015 (in fact, Tuesday was the 3rd anniversary of its release)

Strictly speaking, the RPG Maker MV Trinity thing shouldn't count. If it does, then there are all sorts of console and handheld releases not on the release schedule above. As for the short time between 98II and 95, I remember hearing that RPG Maker 95 was a port of a PC-98 version, probably 98II.

However, RPG Maker MV 1.5.0 changed enough that it is basically a half-step between it and the next maker. Perhaps they can do updates like that, skipping smaller releases like RPG Maker 2003 and Ace, and instead keeping the same engine until the next big step occurs, which might not be until the late summer of 2023 :o

What I would like to see:
Asynchronous preloading and predrawing. It's not the easiest to create a smart preloader, because:
1. every high level language is garbage collected afaik
2. asynchronous functions don't involve using return values due to the fact that they are asynchronous
but if they could make such an engine, that would definitely help.

custom grid - it's just few extra parameters to handle, yet they never implemented it. But it would make things a lot easier with not just strictly one-version tilesets.
Passability for events and player separately
Bringing back a couple of features from rpg maker 2k, namely call event for example, and from 2k3 - thrown weapons and floating enemies in battle
Better documentation of the engine
Better solved graphics rendering - windows are very cpu heavy, map drawing is cpu heavy and the constant redrawing of the map feels a bit unnecessary.
Better solved decryption

Nevertheless, I think it's much better that MV is only barebones and we have to extend it with plugins if we want more of it.
The reason for that is, more features means more code. And more code means overhead both in performance and in price.
For example native support of both parallax mapping and standard mapping: Parallax mapping and standard mapping require two different sets of code, because for example parallax mapping doesn't use tile drawing. Therefore for parallaxers tile drawing is kind of useless. Just like there would be code that would be useless for non-parallax mappers. However, if a plugin maker wanted to make a plugin useful for general public, they'd have to support both versions at once, which creates even more code overhead than in previous case.


If you want a perfect example of bottlenecking, take for example Unity. It offers a gigantic pack of features and enormous expandability via C# plugins. However, the fact that 1. it's C# and 2. it's forcibly feature-rich means it's cpu inefficient. Seeing an Unity html5 game is even worse; Constant preloading and removing items from cache, constant console logs (which are quite cpu heavy btw.).

Actually I think it would be pointless to release new RPG Maker right now. MV is still in development I think and would be better If they can focus on this software right now (unless you talk about console edition of RM, then why not).

Woa! Has it really been 3 years since the release? Time flies. Price hasn't gotten any better (but I know plenty of old games that hasn't changed in price over many years after release) :(

Price, for me is the biggest factor is using VX ace (It was a gift) :)

It actually used be 90 dollars when it came out. Maybe not as much as you'd hoped, but the price has been reduced. It's also been in bundles (it's in one right now) for 50 dollars and on sale for even 20 dollars(!).

I haven't seen it that low, but I haven't really looked hard either (my glitch). Thank you @slimmmeiske2. I will keep a better look out.

I can I understand why you'd think they'll make another RPG Maker sometime soon, because of the dates between each one, however, I think for RPG Maker MV it'll be different, as like others have said they are still updating this one. I could be wrong, but we'll see.

Well guess what folks? The next RM is coming soon!

And there's a topic for it to discuss it.

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