Paizo Paizo & Archives of Nethys reach new agreement

Archives of Nethys, the online repository of rules for Paizo's Pathfinder games, recently announced that Paizo had ended its arrangement with the site.

Paizo today made an announcement indicating that it had made a new agreement with Archives of Nethys. The site will continue much as before, will not have to report royalties to Paizo, but can only use art designated for community use. Additionally, while the site will still receive free copies of PDFs of the books, they will not be as early as they previously were--originally the site received printer files, but now it will get PDFs a little later, presumably along with other outlets which receive such files for reviews and the like.

Last week, both Paizo and the Archives of Nethys released statements concerning the end of our commercial license agreement. These statements were met with an outpouring of community confusion, concern, and displeasure; that sentiment has been heard on all sides.

Over the past several days, we have continued conversations regarding the relationship between Paizo and the Archives of Nethys. Together, we’ve reached a solution that meets the needs of both teams and preserves the stability of this essential community resource.

There will be changes to the Archives of Nethys moving forward, but these changes will not fundamentally disrupt the functionality of the Archives of Nethys:

• The Archives of Nethys will remain an official rules archive for Pathfinder and Starfinder.
• Paizo’s new agreement with the Archives of Nethys is much less formal than a commercial license, which reduces oversight and work on Paizo’s side and eliminates the need for the Archives of Nethys to report royalties.
• Paizo and the Archives of Nethys have agreed that any art not included in the Community Use Policy license will be removed from the Archives of Nethys’ webpages by the end of today, July 24.
  • Paizo plans to release more art into the Community Use Policy (CUP) soon, thus also expanding the Archives of Nethys’ art resources, as well as those of other CUP creators.
• The Archives of Nethys will continue to receive PDFs in advance of street date, on the same schedule as Paizo employees and freelance contributors. This is not as early as the full printer files the Archives of Nethys used to receive, but the Archives of Nethys team is optimistic they can continue releasing new content with minimal delays.
• The Archives of Nethys will continue to host the original Pathfinder First Edition PRD (legacy.aonprd.com) for Paizo.
• Lore and flavor text changes on the Archives of Nethys that are required under the Community Use Policy are expected to be minimal, if any are required at all.

“The Archives of Nethys is a vital resource for the Paizo community, and we are ready to support the volunteer team through these changes,” said Jim Butler, Paizo’s CEO. “Open access to our games has always been a core tenet of Paizo and will remain so. We value the dedication of the Archives of Nethys volunteer team and are committed to supporting their work.”

“Thank you to the community for your amazing enthusiasm and support during this adjustment,” said Blake Davis, owner of the Archives of Nethys. “We hope that this agreement will allow the Archives of Nethys to continue supporting the Pathfinder and Starfinder communities for years to come."

Both Paizo and the Archives of Nethys are committed to maintaining this community resource and adjusting to ensure Pathfinder and Starfinder’s rulesets remain free and easy to access.

Game on!

Jim Butler
CEO, Paizo Inc.

Blake Davis
Owner, the Archives of Nethys

 

[doctorhook]

Huzzah! Seems like a happy ending, glad they got there. This seems more appropriate than the previous commercial license anyway, so that’s good.

Seems like the only screw-up in this debacle is letting the news out that the license was scrapped before a new license was formalized. Not sure whose fault that is (if any), but it left Paizo looking rude. We could have skipped the whole controversy if the new license was announced at the same time.

Oh well, glad we got here eventually.

 

[Special Unicorn]

Glad it worked out!

 

[CleverNickName]

Excellent conflict resolution. I'm glad they got it sorted out.

 

[Nightfly]

Finally some good news! Nice job guys.

 

[Incenjucar]

I look forward to being able to continue reviewing material on AoN to inform my purchase decisions early enough that my FLGS will still have a copy.

 

[Blue]

Seems like the only screw-up in this debacle is letting the news out that the license was scrapped before a new license was formalized. Not sure whose fault that is (if any), but it left Paizo looking rude. We could have skipped the whole controversy if the new license was announced at the same time.

It might have been intentional if AoN released the news, to let the fanbase know that something was up in a bid to make sure that whatever new agreement was offered was fit-for-purpose.

 

[Morrus]

Seems like the only screw-up in this debacle is letting the news out that the license was scrapped before a new license was formalized. Not sure whose fault that is (if any), but it left Paizo looking rude.

The fault of letting the news out was with the people who let the news out. Obviously. What are you not sure about?

 

[doctorhook]

The fault of letting the news out was with the people who let the news out. Obviously. What are you not sure about?

Well I’m rather more curious about the decision timing and PR impacts of these license change announcements. I’m speculating whether Paizo had always intended to offer a different type of license to AoN, and if so, why that wasn’t clearly communicated in the previous announcement.

But all of my curiosity is merely coming from a place of interest in the business processes, not judgement. I’m speculating here since other can often provide additional context, but I’m not expecting any.