Paizo Pathfinder Online To Shut Down November 28th

Alzrius

The EN World kitten
From MMORPG.com:


Pathfinder Online's developers made the announcement today that the MMO will be coming to a close, sunsetting on November 28th. The MMO, which was Kickstarted for over a million dollars back in 2012, has seen its fair share of struggles over the years. However, Paizo has announced that the game will be coming to a close later this year, though they do state they will be working on a storyline for players to enjoy till the end.

In a post to the Pathfinder Online website, the developers state that unfortunately keeping the game going isn't feasible, thanking backers and players, calling working on the game a "privilege."

"A little over six and a half years ago, Pathfinder Online launched into Early Enrollment and Pharasma’s Chosen began settling the Echo Wood. Since then, just as the Gray Lady’s intervention allowed the heroes of the Echo Wood to escape death over and over again, the amazing support from all our wonderful backers and players allowed our tiny team to stay online and keep improving the game year after year. It has been a privilege to see this world and this story brought to life through the dedicated players adventuring in it, but now the epic finale of Pathfinder Online draws near."


A little over six and a half years ago, Pharasma’s Chosen began settling the Echo Wood. Now they must prepare for a final battle against Nhur Athemon’s own Chosen, with both our story and our online game ending on November 28. Read the full details at https://t.co/fo8B7gP3Li pic.twitter.com/WsRJmXvUlS
— Pathfinder Online (@PFO_Paizo) July 27, 2021

While the servers are scheduled to be shut down on November 28th, Pathfinder Online's team state that it might not be possible to keep them running that long, either, due to the aging server tech.

"We’ll do our best to get through these final months as smoothly as possible, and to provide new content that brings everything to a satisfying conclusion. However, it’s possible that we won’t be able to keep the servers running right up to November 28. The servers are getting quite old, and we won’t be able to switch over to the cloud before then. Fortunately, everything looks stable at the moment and we do think they’re in good enough shape to go the distance. If things do go wrong and we’re forced to shut down earlier than expected, we’ll use the most recent available data about the state of the world as the basis for the final writeups."

For those who have bought items in game but have been unable to use them before the servers shut down, the team is refunding those items. Additionally, they are limiting the in-game store purchases and asking those who still want to support the studio in these closing months to only buy items they will be able to use during the remaining time in game.
 

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I kickstarted this. I think I played it once. The game was devoid of content, and I couldn't adjust the audio (the sliders just didn't move) so I couldn't even listen to a podcast because of the music. Money poorly spent, not really feeling sad.
 




beast013

Explorer
I saw a demo of the software at Gencon one year. I wasn't aware it was still around/when it went live. I knew it was buggy (what I saw at Gencon).
 

darjr

I crit!
The demo/test Kickstarter was about $300k and the game Kickstarter was a million. Could that have sustained them this long?
 

gss000

Explorer
The demo/test Kickstarter was about $300k and the game Kickstarter was a million. Could that have sustained them this long?
No way. While it's hard to know how much it cost to develop a game, other MMOs cost several million at a minimum to develop, let alone maintain. I've posted an article with some figures. At best, and if it was done cheaper than other games, that money funded development. Subscriptions or in game purchases would have to support gameplay from then on.

 


CapnZapp

Legend
Again the real question is:

Why is Paizo failing to make Pathfinder content use the 2E rules?

I would have thought the MMO was shut down simply because it uses an obsolete rules engine Paizo should want everybody to actively move away from... The same with that Kingmaker game? Such a failure that Owlcat wasn't influenced to hold off until the playtest version of the 2E rules were published...

It's as if Larian had used 4E rules for Baldur's Gate 3.
 

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