Pathfinder Online hasn't had the best year. Ryan Dancey left GoblinWorks (the company producing the game), and funding issues led to nearly the entire development staff being let go. This left the company seeking up to $2 million from investors to finish the game. Things looked dire, but a letter from GoblinWorks and Paizo CEO Lisa Stevens hints that there may be light at the end of the tunnel - an (as yet unnamed) company has signed a letter of intent to fund the game after spending two days at the Paizo offices in Seattle. This is phrased in the letter as an "acquisition", and that the company is still negotiating the funding. The plan is for the new company to take over the game and its development on March 1, 2016.
Here's Lisa's full letter, which also contains information about recent updates to the software.
The year 2015 has been an exciting but tumultuous time for us at Goblinworks. The team delivered 11 expansions to the game including holdings and outposts and the warfare associated with them; the ability to craft and build your own settlements; new monsters and escalations such as the elementals, duergar and dark elves; new spells, armor, weapons, feats and classes such as the Expert and Freeholder, and much more! But as many of you are aware, we never found all the funding we needed to finish building the game that we have been describing to you. This led us to laying off the majority of the Goblinworks staff at the end of August.
Here's Lisa's full letter, which also contains information about recent updates to the software.
The year 2015 has been an exciting but tumultuous time for us at Goblinworks. The team delivered 11 expansions to the game including holdings and outposts and the warfare associated with them; the ability to craft and build your own settlements; new monsters and escalations such as the elementals, duergar and dark elves; new spells, armor, weapons, feats and classes such as the Expert and Freeholder, and much more! But as many of you are aware, we never found all the funding we needed to finish building the game that we have been describing to you. This led us to laying off the majority of the Goblinworks staff at the end of August.
But there is good news to be relayed! Just today, I received a signed letter of intent from a company that wants to take on the Pathfinder Online legacy and see it through to completion. One of the principals of this company has been playing Pathfinder Online since day 1 and understands the vision for the game we are making. The company recently came up to Seattle to the Goblinworks offices and we had 2 productive and exciting days planning for the future and what this game can be.
Now this acquisition of the Pathfinder Online game is incumbent upon them finalizing the funding they are currently in negotiations for, but all signs are very positive on that front right now. This funding will give Pathfinder Online more money to invest in the game than has been spent in over 4 years of development. This will significantly accelerate the development and support of the game to a point unprecedented in Pathfinder Online history. If things continue to go well, they expect to take over the game entirely by March 1, 2016.
In the meantime, the legacy team has been working for the month of December on doing a bunch of polish and bug fixing in the game. The biggest new thing will be the long-awaited and desired vault sorting of personal, company, and settlements vaults. The vaults will use an interface very similar to that used in the Auction House right now. Also, auctions will last for a month instead of a week.
Another much needed feature will be a command for you to use if you become stuck somewhere in the game. By typing /stuck, you will enter a countdown timer for five minutes. During that time, you cannot move nor engage or be engaged in combat. If any of those things happen, the /stuck command expires. If you can manage to not move or be part of combat, after five minutes, you will be teleported to the nearest shrine and none of your items will take durability loss.
Mike has also enabled cloaks and packs in the game, so you will now be able to equip them and have them show up on your characters.
There are more fixes that will be revealed when EE11.1 goes live. The goal is to do testing when the team is back after New Years and if all goes well, launch it in January.
In closing, I thank you all for your support for Pathfinder Online and your friendship in the game. I thank you for an exciting 2015 and look forward to seeing the game expand to its full potential in 2016. Thank you once again!
-Lisa Stevens
Acting CEO
Goblinworks Inc.
Now this acquisition of the Pathfinder Online game is incumbent upon them finalizing the funding they are currently in negotiations for, but all signs are very positive on that front right now. This funding will give Pathfinder Online more money to invest in the game than has been spent in over 4 years of development. This will significantly accelerate the development and support of the game to a point unprecedented in Pathfinder Online history. If things continue to go well, they expect to take over the game entirely by March 1, 2016.
In the meantime, the legacy team has been working for the month of December on doing a bunch of polish and bug fixing in the game. The biggest new thing will be the long-awaited and desired vault sorting of personal, company, and settlements vaults. The vaults will use an interface very similar to that used in the Auction House right now. Also, auctions will last for a month instead of a week.
Another much needed feature will be a command for you to use if you become stuck somewhere in the game. By typing /stuck, you will enter a countdown timer for five minutes. During that time, you cannot move nor engage or be engaged in combat. If any of those things happen, the /stuck command expires. If you can manage to not move or be part of combat, after five minutes, you will be teleported to the nearest shrine and none of your items will take durability loss.
Mike has also enabled cloaks and packs in the game, so you will now be able to equip them and have them show up on your characters.
There are more fixes that will be revealed when EE11.1 goes live. The goal is to do testing when the team is back after New Years and if all goes well, launch it in January.
In closing, I thank you all for your support for Pathfinder Online and your friendship in the game. I thank you for an exciting 2015 and look forward to seeing the game expand to its full potential in 2016. Thank you once again!
-Lisa Stevens
Acting CEO
Goblinworks Inc.
