Starfinder Starfinder's Sutter Leaves Paizo; Butler Joins (In A Different Role)

I don't normally report on staff changes at RPG companies unless it's something major. I feel like a couple of Paizo staff updates are worth mentioning though. First, James Sutter, co-creator of Pathfinder, and creative director of Starfinder, is leaving Paizo to write full-time (although he says he will still freelance for Paizo). Don't worry - it's all amicable, as he reports in a blog post at Paizo's website. Secondly, I'm informed by Paizo staff that Paizo has hired TSR's Jim Butler, who helped spearhead Alternity, and ran Bastion Press in the early 2000s, as Vice President of Marketing and Licensing.

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[JeffB]

I think Jim was in charge of D&D too for awhile, IIRC.

 

[kenmarable]

I don't recall him running D&D, but I know he was in charge of a lot of the outreach when 3.0 launched. He headed up the Official Fan Site program. Also, I remember him running the initial "scanning the old books to make PDFs" effort. Awesome to see him involved! He's a great guy and knows this industry well.

It's too bad Sutter won't be all Paizo all the time, but good for him making that leap! Glad that he will still be freelancing at least - and reading his post, I guess it makes sense that we might see more writing from him since he'll be doing less editing and directing.

 

[Emirikol Prime]

Wes Schneider now Sutter. Sorry to see the band start to part ways.

 

[JeffB]

Hmm. I thought for sure I saw Jim's name as a Brand Manager in one or more of my old 3.0 books. Before the ESD program and Bastion Press.

I don't have anything but the core 3.0 books to reference these days. Maybe the FRCS?

I don't recall what I had for breakfast yesterday either, so...:shrug:

 

[Vampyr3]

With Paizo's rumored money problems..this does not shock me at all....

 

[Jer]

Hmm. I thought for sure I saw Jim's name as a Brand Manager in one or more of my old 3.0 books. Before the ESD program and Bastion Press.

I don't have anything but the core 3.0 books to reference these days. Maybe the FRCS?

I don't recall what I had for breakfast yesterday either, so...:shrug:

Yup. My FRCS lists Jim Butler as "Brand Manager". Not sure which brand (D&D or FR or all of it).

 

[Azgulor]

With Paizo's rumored money problems..this does not shock me at all....

Unless you can cite a source, this just seems like trolling. Paizo just had their largest release/launch success at Gen Con with Starfinder. They brought the most product they had ever brought to a Gen Con and it sold out before the end of the first day. Pathfinder continues to sell well and based on what (admittedly anecdotal) info is available, is still the steady #2 RPG on the market.

 

[JeffB]

Yup. My FRCS lists Jim Butler as "Brand Manager". Not sure which brand (D&D or FR or all of it).

Ha! Vindication!

Though I still don't recall yesterday's breakfast

 

[Kelanen]

Unless you can cite a source, this just seems like trolling. Paizo just had their largest release/launch success at Gen Con with Starfinder. They brought the most product they had ever brought to a Gen Con and it sold out before the end of the first day. Pathfinder continues to sell well and based on what (admittedly anecdotal) info is available, is still the steady #2 RPG on the market.

I don't think he is trolling. It's nice that Starfinder sold well but the Paizo stuff at a couple local FLGS has almost completely disappeared since 5th edition arrived. The shelf space has been taken up by 5th edition, Monte Cook and some smaller companies, which is nice.

For the record my group currently plays Pathfinder.