Square Enix lawyers shut down Yokotaro fan archive 6 months after he thanked the creators of it for all their love.

Square Enix has made a number of mistakes that have left me confused and alarmed. Now I can add another to the list.

Accord's library, a website that collects and archives lore for the Nier and Drakengard video games, was told to shut down. This was shared by Gamesradar on the site's Discord.

Square Enix Legal Team has contacted us. We regret to inform everyone that these past few years were a great pleasure. After some private communication, we've come to the conclusion Accord's Library will close its doors at the end of this month. While we are sorry to be leaving, we must also respect the wishes of Legal Team.

"On behalf the entire Council for Accord’s Library, we sincerely appreciate your support and friendship throughout the years. We hope you will continue to use Discord. However, we understand if that is where we part.

The website, which began operating in 2021 collected artwork, news and lore. But what killed it was the scans of different media, such as manga and novels. It's important to keep in mind that these entries provided information on pricing and "when and how" the media was released, as well as giving fans access some pieces of media which are no longer in circulation, along with fan-translations. Although it may have crossed some legal boundaries in the process, the intention was to share and preserve Yoko Taro’s work.

Yoko Taro himself visited the website around six months ago. He had no problems with it and thanked the team for their hard work. All he asked was that they remove a photo of his face from the site, which they did.

A message shared by the site in its Discord on April 13 reads: "The NieR and Drag-On Dragoon series (Drakengard), were niche, but we made it this far thanks to all of the fans who supported. Please convey my gratitude to you all once again. "Thank you very much."

This is a big disappointment. While Square's within its rights, here, this decision smacks of corporate short-sightedness--particularly when the series' creator seemingly only had kind words to say. Square Enix owns the IP rights for the series and Yoko isn’t a full-time Square Enix employee. His words don’t matter. Bleak.

It's particularly frustrating for fans of Nier or Drakengard, since there's no assurance that the company has any plans to rerelease anything from the website's archive. This is a company that lost $140 millions due to abandoning content. I don't hold out much hope. The website will only be available in a limited capacity up until October 31. After that, it's gone.