Pathfinder 1E Is PAIZO becoming the next Wizards?

[MichaelSomething]

I don´t get it. Who on this thread hates Paizo?

The Professor was talking about other RPG forums and not anyone here.

As for my opinion of this subject, Paizo will not be "the next WOTC." Paizo will forge its own unique path based on what is best for itself.

 

[ProfessorCirno]

I don´t get it. Who on this thread hates Paizo?

The Professor was talking about other RPG forums and not anyone here.

As for my opinion of this subject, Paizo will not be "the next WOTC." Paizo will forge its own unique path based on what is best for itself.

Mistype - while I don't think anyone on this thread openly hates them, there's certainly been a lot of issue with people being very dismissive at best towards them from time to time on these forums.

 

[MrGrenadine]

I don´t get it. Who on this thread hates Paizo?

I think pointing particular posters out would derail the conversation, so I'll just say a quick perusal of the thread bears the Professor's remarks out.


As to the question: IS Paizo becoming as big as WotC? I'm not sure.

However, to the question "CAN Paizo become as big as WotC?", I say hells yeah, if they keep producing high quality products that folks want to play/use/read/watch, and they continue being the approachable, straight-shooting and profitable company that they are.

The fact is that every large company that seems like an unbeatable juggernaut was once a scrappy underdog, so there's always the possibility Paizo could grow to be the industry/market leader, with enough skill and luck.

And I'd love to see 'em do it.

 

[AllisterH]

*blinks*

You know,I keep repeating this...but strangely it always seems that I have to keep doing it.

WOTC's biggest cash cow are most assuredly not D&D.

Not by a LONGSHOT.

Until Paizo comes up with the new "take the tweener crowd by storm" fad/game/endeavour, I seriously doubt Paizo will reach WOTC size.

 

[Truth Seeker]

I heartlly agreed...

It's always gratifying when the posters on ENWorld still take a few pages to stop firing off comments and realign their thoughts after the owner of a game company makes a few quiet posts on the subject. I appreciate Lisa Stevens' posts (and Erik Mona's posting restraint, too.)

There really are few valid comparisons between a publicly traded manfuacturer of games and toys to the mass market and book trade, and a priavately owned niche hobby games publisher. This is so even if the hobby games publisher is a seemingly burgeoning and successful enterprise (as judged by the standards of the hobby games trade).

Having had the opportunity to meeth them both Lisa Stevens and Erik Mona at past Gencons, I'm happy and pleased that they are enjoying success in making products that many of us here want to buy and are proud of owning.

 

[BryonD]

There really are few valid comparisons between a publicly traded manfuacturer of games and toys to the mass market and book trade, and a priavately owned niche hobby games publisher.

I doubt more than 1 in 4 posters really grasp the concept of what WotC is.

If you replace "WotC" with "the piece of WotC focused on making D&D" then the assessments become less wrong. But then again, that is just moving the "wrong" from here to there....

 

[MrGrenadine]

I doubt more than 1 in 4 posters really grasp the concept of what WotC is.

Wow, thats just insulting. I guess those college degrees on my wall aren't worth the paper they're printed on.

If you replace "WotC" with "the piece of WotC focused on making D&D" then the assessments become less wrong. But then again, that is just moving the "wrong" from here to there....

There is absolutely nothing amiss in discussing whether a small, privately held company might someday grow to be a market leader, like the huge corporate-owned behemoth that WotC is. Let's forget that WotC started as small as Paizo.


And to refine my previous post, I would love to see Paizo gain the market share, name recognition and profits of WotC--but I'd rather see them do it without having to be sold to a huge corporation. I love that Paizo is owned and run by gamers.

And yes, understand that WotC's market share and profits probably cannot be matched without the juice being owned by a huge corporation gives you. But if there were any druthers to be had, and I could have mine, I'd keep Paizo gamer-owned and run.

 

[BryonD]

There is absolutely nothing amiss in discussing whether a small, privately held company might someday grow to be a market leader, like the huge corporate-owned behemoth that WotC is. Let's forget that WotC started as small as Paizo.

I believe you prove the point.

In the context of Paizo, the "market" does not remotely capture the bredth of WotC.

If you are just wildly specualting that any given small company present in one niche could ultimately become purchased by a major corporation and expand into other areas that significantly overshadow the original niche in question, then Steve Jackson, White Wolf, Green Ronin, and Bad Axe are all just as valid. There is certainly nothing amiss in that kind of idle daydreaming

But there is something amiss in leaping from Paizo's current RPG footprint to a conclusion that there is current day reason to reach a serious comparison between them and the bredth of WotC.

 

[Umbran]

There is absolutely nothing amiss in discussing whether a small, privately held company might someday grow to be a market leader, like the huge corporate-owned behemoth that WotC is. Let's forget that WotC started as small as Paizo.

And let us not forget that, on the scale of corporations WotC is not, and never has been, "huge". Its behemothitude is only in comparison to the other RPG producers (which are tiny things), not the corporate landscape as a whole.

 

[BryonD]

And let us not forget that, on the scale of corporations WotC is not, and never has been, "huge". Its behemothitude is only in comparison to the other RPG producers (which are tiny things), not the corporate landscape as a whole.

Correct. "Huge" is a relative term. Compared to Hasbro the entirety of WotC is quite small.

But, compared to D&D, which certainly is the definition of "huge" as RPGs go, WotC itself is huge.

Hasbro >>> WotC >>> D&D >>> Paizo.
Huge depends on where you are standing.