For 12-years many IL-2 Sturmovik: Great Battles fans have been interacting constantly over on the official forums. This was an epicentre of the series’ community hosting discussion, support, and content creation focused threads and messages. These forums are going away and are being replaced by new ones. Here’s what we know.

Out with the old, in with the new

IL-2’s old forums are about to go away and are being replaced. That’s not entirely the whole story as a lengthy update from the 1C Game Studios team indicates that the old forums will be placed into read-only, preserving the content, but making it unavailable for new messaging.

A new forum will be launched on Monday, November 24 which will be similar to the one we are familiar with right now. There are more details on the how and why so I’m copying the entire message:

Dear friends, we have some important news to share with you!

Due to the launch of the new IL-2 series website, the old forum, which has been with us for 12 years, will be closed. It will be switched to read-only mode, so old posts can still be viewed, but no new ones can be created.

Our game websites and forums are moving to a new technology platform. This is primarily due to the need to tighten account security measures. The old forum was connected to the IL-2 user database, which allowed us to display icons showing which modules had been purchased. In addition, every game purchaser was automatically registered on the forum. This creates a potential risk, as malicious users can more easily access the old forum database than the central, secure player database.

On Monday, November 24, 2025, a new game forum will be launched. It will be similar to the old one, but there will no longer be a direct connection between the forum and website databases. Accounts on the new forum will be completely independent of accounts on the website. Unfortunately, this will not allow us to provide forum badges for purchased items. Registration on the forum will not be automatic or mandatory. You can register at your discretion, and your forum nickname may differ from your in-game nickname.

IMPORTANT: If you have important information in your private messages on the old forum that you would like to save, please do so before Monday, as you won’t be able to access them after that.

Thank you for your understanding! See you on the new forum!

Read the message and interact on the forums here.