Paizo Paizo Price Increases and Sustainability Efforts

Paizo announced a new pricing structure for their entire product line. The changes will go into effect for PDF products (Bounties, Quests, and Scenarios) effective October 25, 2023, and will apply to all PDF products. No other PDF prices will be changed. The new MSRP changes go into effect in April 2024 for all print products.

The first printing of the new Pathfinder core rulebooks – Player Core, GM Core, Monster Core, and Player Core 2 – will maintain the current $59.99 MSRP for at least the first printing as “We feel these books are essential first purchases for Pathfinder players and want to hold the line on price increases as long as possible to reduce the barrier of entry for new players.”

The new pricing structure:

• Bounties/Quests1 from $4.99 to $5.99
• Scenarios2 from $5.99/$7.99 to $8.99
• Special Interactive Scenarios from $14.99 to $19.99
• Flip-Mats from $16.99 to $19.99
• Flip-Mat Multi-Pack from $24.99 to $29.99
• 96-page Adventure Paths from $26.99 to $29.99
• Pocket Editions will range from $24.99-$29.99 to $26.99-$34.99 (varies by page count)
• Hardcover Prices will vary by page count:
  • 128 Page: $44.99
  • 192 Page: $59.99
  • 256 Page: $69.99
  • 304 Page with map: $79.99
  • Special Edition covers add $20 to the retail price

1: Bounties and Quests are short, stand-alone digital adventures designed for 2-hour sessions

2: Scenarios are Pathfinder Society and Starfinder Society adventures previously priced based on play tier with higher-level adventures costing more. The prices will now be the same regardless of the level of the adventure.

Paizo also updated its current environmental and sustainability actions. The company already printed using soy-based ink that requires less ink per page with no toxic chemicals. Paizo is changing to FSC-Certified paper coming from ecologically sourced forests that prohibit deforestation and require protection of old-growth forests and biodiversity as well as protections for the rights of Indigenous peoples. Changes have also been made to shipping from the Paizo warehouse by changing shipping product partners and moving from foam packing materials to starch and cardboard. Full details are available on the Paizo Blog.

 

[payn]

They could get away with that with PF1 because it was basically D&D 3.5 with heavy errata and extra options, but with PF2 being a completely new system they pretty much can never sell more copies of the Adventure Path than they sell core rulebooks because you need those rules to play the adventure paths.

Archives of Nethys allows you a crack at the rules for free.

 

[Retreater]

This is particularly true with regard to roleplaying games: think about what your per-hour entertainment cost works out to for any set of RPG rulebooks, supplements, or adventures. A one-year, two sessions month, four hours a session net cost number is startlingly low, I will assure you.

Oh, that's not how it works.
Imagine buying a guitar and saying , well the cost is low because I practiced for hours on it. Or a pad of paper and pen is cheap entertainment for a fiction writer.
A gaming book is not years of entertainment in and of itself. It requires a lot of work. Hours of effort to make it entertaining

 

[Reynard]

Oh, that's not how it works.
Imagine buying a guitar and saying , well the cost is low because I practiced for hours on it. Or a pad of paper and pen is cheap entertainment for a fiction writer.
A gaming book is not years of entertainment in and of itself. It requires a lot of work. Hours of effort to make it entertaining

While I tend to think of RPGs as "cheap entertainment" i largely agree with your point here: it may be "cheap" for certain definitions of "cheap" but it isn't effortless. Since it isn't a passive form of entertainment, like TV or books, and doesn't do all the work for you like video games, it is a unique animal with regards to its value. I don't think anyone but the individual can really decide whether an RPG is a "good value" no matter how much or how little one paid for it.

 

[Velderan]

While I tend to think of RPGs as "cheap entertainment" i largely agree with your point here: it may be "cheap" for certain definitions of "cheap" but it isn't effortless. Since it isn't a passive form of entertainment, like TV or books, and doesn't do all the work for you like video games, it is a unique animal with regards to its value. I don't think anyone but the individual can really decide whether an RPG is a "good value" no matter how much or how little one paid for it.

The hobby is also a bit of a unique animal for value due to some people buying books to read them and not play them (which obviously severely cuts down on the hours of enjoyment they get out of a book). My Pathfinder purchases include things I’ll use bits from to flesh out a NPC or location and other books I know I’m unlikely to use for a game and just wanted to read. Not everything will see the use something like Abomination Vaults will end up seeing by the time we’re done running it in probably 6 months or so.

There’s also people who are basically shelf collectors that just like having a bunch of stuff on their shelves. I know I’m guilty of unintentionally doing that with books I back on Kickstarter thinking I’ll use them and by the time the project fulfills, I'll have lost interest in what I paid for. That’s a big reason I’ve cut back on the types of projects I’ll back, mostly looking for stuff that the majority of the writing sounds like it’s done and they just needed additional funding to commission some art and cover printing costs.

 

[CleverNickName]

Yeah. I'm thinking PDF is the way to go now.

Seems like everything is pushing for "paperless" these days, not just my bank statements.

 

[Queer Venger]

Paizo price increases are high, even compared to WotC; understandably in our current market, but damn.

 

[Queer Venger]

Seems like everything is pushing for "paperless" these days, not just my bank statements.

which sadly touts to be more eco-friendly but all those servers... and tbh, the prices for pdf's are only $10-20 less than the physical.

 

[SteveC]

This is bad news for me. What it means is that I won't be getting physical copies of the new books. I suppose I'll have to see if they do another Humble Bundle once everything is out to get the new ones as PDFs. I get that everything is becoming more expensive, but that sadly doesn't include my wages and these costs are getting outside my "fun purchases." Unfortunate all around. I say this because I think it may be useful to look at: I'm not a poor college student anymore and am fortunate to be in the upper levels of income with my family. I can't imagine that college age me would be able to get these books at all.

 

[Feeroper]

Oh man this is going to be hard to keep up with PF now. That is a pretty big price increase. I appreciate that they have AoN, but I dont particularly like using it. I like the feel of the book, the extra flavour and the artwork. Im glad that AoN exists though for those who use it!

I also find it funny that when WotC announced a price increase on their books earlier this year, they were met with vitriol and criticism. Now Paizo is doing the same and it looks like even more of an increase, and a lot more understanding. Perhaps a side effect of the OGL nonsense earlier this year. However that said we have to understand, despite Paizo & PF being the smaller company/game by comparison, they are still a business just the same as WotC, and largely have the same goals and needs re: profit. When I see the digital prices going up too, and the recent PF Trivia app that is a microtransaction system, and I expect Gallowspire Survivors to be a microtransaction filled game when it reaches final, they are very much cut from the same cloth - it is just business. It is just unfortunate across the board that we see prices rising across the board in everything (not just gaming), but we don't see wages going up.

 

[CleverNickName]

I also find it funny that when WotC announced a price increase on their books earlier this year, they were met with vitriol and criticism. Now Paizo is doing the same and it looks like even more of an increase, and a lot more understanding.

Yeah, there's definitely an anti-WotC bias in the hobby.