Changes are coming to Paizo. The tabletop publisher, most well known for TTRPGs Pathfinder and Starfinder, has been busy recently, as a company and as a creative team. As part of these projects, the president, Jim Butler, provides some Pathfinder updates.
Pathfinder Updates and Paizo's Future
In an extensive blog post, Butler explains plans for the future of both Paizo and Pathfinder.
First, Butler mentions that various negotiations and compromises have been made in the past year with the United Paizo Workers union. While the process is still ongoing, progress continues to be made.
Butler then mentions the ORC License and the Pathfinder Remaster project. Butler does state that moving Pathfinder from the OGL to the ORC with this remaster has taken priority. But it does mean that the release date of certain books has been affected.
The following books have had their release dates pushed to 2024:
- The D&D 5e conversion of Abomination Vaults
- Starfinder's Scoured Stars and Mechgeddon! Adventure Paths
- The Lost Omens Tian Xia Character Guide
- The Pathfinder Howl of the Wild rulebook
In addition, Butler addresses some company reorganizations. Ultimately, the reorganizations amount to streamlining leadership teams and merging certain creative teams. This has allowed Paizo to create games outside of their TTRPGs.
Paizo will also continue to support remote office positions. While remote working happened as a result of the COVID pandemic, Paizo will maintain a remote workforce. They are currently in the process of closing down their Redmond office, as well as moving several warehouse operations.
Butler confirms that Paizo is seeking more licensing partners to bring their worlds to a wider audience.
This has already resulted in games like Pathfinder: Kingmaker, and Wrath of the Righteous, BKOM's Abomination Vaults video game, and VTT partnerships with Demiplane.
One of the biggest consumer updates is a brand new Paizo store. While the older online store was antiquated, Butler states the new store will include the following:
- A responsive design across web, mobile, and tablet devices
- An easy checkout process with multiple payment options available
- A robust award program, one better than the Paizo Advantage program
- More robust subscription options
- Better organization
The post ultimately ends with Butler thanking everyone that has supported Paizo over the years.
