Pathfinder 1E Paizo Publishing Makes Inc Magazine's Top 5000

[Morrus]

Paizo Publishing Makes Inc Magazine's Top 5000. This is a US magazine which lists the fastest growing companies in America. Paizo came in at #2370. Lisa Stevens, CEO of Paizo Publishing, says: "I am proud of our team here at Paizo, and thank our fans for making Pathfinder the #1 roleplaying game in the world!"

It'll be interesting to see how much Paizo can grow - or how much it wants to. I was speaking to Lisa at Gen Con and she said that they deliberately had a hard limit of 50 employees set - so as not to become too corporate or ivory-towered - and that they were in the 40s right now (not that employee numbers is the figure that matters!)

 

[Zardnaar]

They do run the risk of their customers leaving if WoTC ever make a decent version of D&D again. Apart from that lol.

 

[Kinak]

Good job Paizo!

Liking Pathfinder aside, I've always been very impressed with Lisa Stevens and the crew she's assembled.

Cheers!
Kinak

 

[an_idol_mind]

They do run the risk of their customers leaving if WoTC ever make a decent version of D&D again. Apart from that lol.

I'm not sure how accurate that is. Speaking for myself, I know that even if the next D&D edition fits my tastes better than Pathfinder, I'd probably still be a Paizo customer. Their adventures are usually very good, and their Monsters Revisited books are automatically must-buys for me and will likely remain so no matter what system I play (or even if I play RPGs period).

 

[Wicht]

I'm not sure how accurate that is. Speaking for myself, I know that even if the next D&D edition fits my tastes better than Pathfinder, I'd probably still be a Paizo customer. Their adventures are usually very good, and their Monsters Revisited books are automatically must-buys for me and will likely remain so no matter what system I play (or even if I play RPGs period).

Paizo won me over before WotC lost me. I don't think it fair to see them as existing solely based on the failure of another company. Their success has been largely their own doing.

And Congrats to Paizo on that success!

 

[Gilbetron]

I'd call that the final nail in the coffin for the "modules don't sell" idiocy. Turns out "crappy modules don't sell" is really what it was. Good job Paizo

 

[Morrus]

I think Paizo's expertise - and diversification these days - is such that they would have a good chance of clinging on through a disaster like everyone suddenly not playing Pathfinder anymore overnight. That's not going to happen, of course, but they are so good as so much more than just producing Pathfinder rules. Setting material, comic books, novels, miniatures, the world-leader in adventure production (which could reference a new system if they had to), accessories, cards, and upcoming MMO, a card game - there's no end to it!

 

[Morrus]

I'd call that the final nail in the coffin for the "modules don't sell" idiocy. Turns out "crappy modules don't sell" is really what it was.

That's really not what that phrase means. On the whole, adventures don't sell -- by definition their market a subset of any core rules. That's what that phrase means.

Paizo has managed to find a way - by developing a cool subscription-based, repeating AP model - which includes a higher percentage of that core rules market than is traditional, and is just the right size that that can be profitable (an undoubtedly one of the reasons why they wish to remain that the size they are - they could easily be bigger). That speaks to their innovative approach and their ability to listen to their customers (again, an advantage of their size). It does not mean that other stuff is "crappy". (Some other stuff may well be crappy, but plenty of it - especially in the "TSR" era which was characterized by the whole diminishing sales on ever-specialized products - was really, really good; yet didn't sell enough).

Paizo comes across to me like WotC over a decade ago. And they're also in a position where they could see everything WotC did and allow that to help inform their decisions, so they won't travel down the same route that WotC did.

 

[Jester David]

They do run the risk of their customers leaving if WoTC ever make a decent version of D&D again. Apart from that lol.

Paizo has a few advantages that will keep them from collapsing even if D&D Next shatters their audience.

The first is their focus on adventures. Even if 5e rocks my world and convinces my entire table to switch, I still plan on running some Paizo adventures.

The second is Paizo itself. I say it often enough that it should be my signature: people buy Pathfinder because of Paizo and D&D despite Wizards of the Coast.
Paizo is run by people who love the hobby. The CEO was at the first GenCon. Much of the big names on the staff frequent the message boards and interact directly with the fans. Their fan support is excellent.

 

[Morrus]

people buy Pathfinder because of Paizo and D&D despite Wizards of the Coast.

I'm not convinced that's true. Certainly some, industry-aware, online people do, but I don't think it can be everyone by a long shot. Most RPG players simply buy things that look awesome in their game stores. They don't necessarily have the connection with the companies that those who delve into RPGs online do, and probably aren't aware of who's who beyond seeing a name on a book from time to time. And many wouldn't give two hoots about either company other than that they produce items they wish to buy.

That's changing, of course. Many, many more folks are interacting with companies online than 10 years ago, but I don't think it's a large percentage yet. Not one of my gaming group does, other than me. No gamers I know do, other than those I met via EN World. They don't care, or know, or want to talk about whether Paizo loves the game or whether WotC doesn't, and have never shown any interest in interacting directly with either company.

A good way I think of it is that I substitute the market. Yes, we here on EN World are a self-selected bunch of people very aware of the RPG market. But you're not that way about every product in your life. I look at my bookshelf and see publishing company names that I know nothing about; I have no idea whether the company which makes my TV loves doing it or not; I'm using a Jawbone UP to track my steps every day, but know nothing at all about the company behind it. And the same goes for 90% of the stuff I use.