Starfinder Starfinder's Sutter Leaves Paizo; Butler Joins (In A Different Role)

I don't normally report on staff changes at RPG companies unless it's something major. I feel like a couple of Paizo staff updates are worth mentioning though. First, James Sutter, co-creator of Pathfinder, and creative director of Starfinder, is leaving Paizo to write full-time (although he says he will still freelance for Paizo). Don't worry - it's all amicable, as he reports in a blog post at Paizo's website. Secondly, I'm informed by Paizo staff that Paizo has hired TSR's Jim Butler, who helped spearhead Alternity, and ran Bastion Press in the early 2000s, as Vice President of Marketing and Licensing.

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[JeffB]

I think Jim was in charge of D&D too for awhile, IIRC.

 

[kenmarable]

I don't recall him running D&D, but I know he was in charge of a lot of the outreach when 3.0 launched. He headed up the Official Fan Site program. Also, I remember him running the initial "scanning the old books to make PDFs" effort. Awesome to see him involved! He's a great guy and knows this industry well.

It's too bad Sutter won't be all Paizo all the time, but good for him making that leap! Glad that he will still be freelancing at least - and reading his post, I guess it makes sense that we might see more writing from him since he'll be doing less editing and directing.

 

[Emirikol Prime]

Wes Schneider now Sutter. Sorry to see the band start to part ways.

 

[JeffB]

Hmm. I thought for sure I saw Jim's name as a Brand Manager in one or more of my old 3.0 books. Before the ESD program and Bastion Press.

I don't have anything but the core 3.0 books to reference these days. Maybe the FRCS?

I don't recall what I had for breakfast yesterday either, so...:shrug:

 

[Vampyr3]

With Paizo's rumored money problems..this does not shock me at all....

 

[Jer]

Hmm. I thought for sure I saw Jim's name as a Brand Manager in one or more of my old 3.0 books. Before the ESD program and Bastion Press.

I don't have anything but the core 3.0 books to reference these days. Maybe the FRCS?

I don't recall what I had for breakfast yesterday either, so...:shrug:

Yup. My FRCS lists Jim Butler as "Brand Manager". Not sure which brand (D&D or FR or all of it).

 

[Azgulor]

With Paizo's rumored money problems..this does not shock me at all....

Unless you can cite a source, this just seems like trolling. Paizo just had their largest release/launch success at Gen Con with Starfinder. They brought the most product they had ever brought to a Gen Con and it sold out before the end of the first day. Pathfinder continues to sell well and based on what (admittedly anecdotal) info is available, is still the steady #2 RPG on the market.

 

[JeffB]

Yup. My FRCS lists Jim Butler as "Brand Manager". Not sure which brand (D&D or FR or all of it).

Ha! Vindication!

Though I still don't recall yesterday's breakfast

 

[Kelanen]

Unless you can cite a source, this just seems like trolling. Paizo just had their largest release/launch success at Gen Con with Starfinder. They brought the most product they had ever brought to a Gen Con and it sold out before the end of the first day. Pathfinder continues to sell well and based on what (admittedly anecdotal) info is available, is still the steady #2 RPG on the market.

I don't think he is trolling. It's nice that Starfinder sold well but the Paizo stuff at a couple local FLGS has almost completely disappeared since 5th edition arrived. The shelf space has been taken up by 5th edition, Monte Cook and some smaller companies, which is nice.

For the record my group currently plays Pathfinder.

 

[kenmarable]

Ha! Vindication!

Though I still don't recall yesterday's breakfast

That's what I get for going from memory. Either way, he's a great addition to Paizo!

I don't think he is trolling. It's nice that Starfinder sold well but the Paizo stuff at a couple local FLGS has almost completely disappeared since 5th edition arrived. The shelf space has been taken up by 5th edition, Monte Cook and some smaller companies, which is nice.

For the record my group currently plays Pathfinder.

Keep in mind that "shelf space at a couple local FLGS" isn't exactly solid data. Even if 5e is doing great, that could go either way for Paizo. On the one hand, they are competitors, so one can easily pull customers from the other. On the other hand, being the flagship brand in a niche industry, as D&D's sales boom, it lifts the entire industry up in bringing in more customers, not all of whom will stay with 5e. So 5e doing great could easily go either way, and the shelf space at a couple stores isn't going to inform us either way.

Besides the anecdata of the shelf space at my local stores runs counter to that with Paizo products still well stocked and selling. I could just as easily assume that is evidence that Paizo is doing great! That's why just looking at a couple stores is pretty much useless, especially given other sales venues like Amazon and Paizo's own online store not to mention their heavy pushing of subscriptions (any of which I'd think is a safe bet are far more sales than all the FLGS sales combined - but that's just me thinking it's a safe bet, not actual data either, so make of that what you will.)

 

[Kramodlog]

Do lead developpers on special project like Starfinder get more money and thus can leave and work on something else? Monte Cook left WotC not long after 3.0 was released and I think some of the guys who came up with 4e.

 

[rknop]

Yeah, shelf space at one or two FLGSes does not count as "rumors of money problems". It means nothing.

The FLGSes I've been to have lots of shelf space for Paizo. That also means nothing.

All of this is rampant speculation. Pay no attention to it.

What we know is that the first run of Starfinder sold better than they expected it to. I talked to some Paizo folks at GenCon. They were thinking that they might sell through their stock by the end of the con... they didn't expect to sell all of it in six and a half hours on the first day of the con. I also talked to Amanda Hamon Kunz briefly at the Paizo area in the vendor room ("room" -- more like "town") at GenCon. She told me that they had increased the size of the original print run a few times. Distributors were coming to them with orders much larger than they were expecting.

All outward indications are that Paizo's doing fine. Sure, lots of people play 5e, but lots of people still play Pathfinder too. And, Paizo had the largest single space dedicated to one company at GenCon. That has to mean something.

 

[Sunsword]

Unless you can cite a source, this just seems like trolling. Paizo just had their largest release/launch success at Gen Con with Starfinder. They brought the most product they had ever
brought to a Gen Con and it sold out before the end of the first day. Pathfinder continues to sell well and based on what (admittedly anecdotal) info is available, is still the steady #2 RPG on the market.

I think it has also sold out at several distributors, but it has not sold out on their website.

However, the difference between the #1 selling spot in RPGs and the #2 has ALWAYS been an order of magnitude. Paizo, however has always been strong at keeping sales direct with their customers.

 

[billd91]

Do lead developpers on special project like Starfinder get more money and thus can leave and work on something else? Monte Cook left WotC not long after 3.0 was released and I think some of the guys who came up with 4e.

WotC, after being bought out by Hasbro, is long-suspected of cutting longer-time writers/designers and hiring newer people, probably as a cost-saving measure. After all, hiring someone for a starter salary is cheaper than continuing to pay someone who has years of raises under their belt. Paizo has never been accused of doing so to my knowledge.

 

[Derulbaskul]

With Paizo's rumored money problems..this does not shock me at all....

There are no rumours of money problems at Paizo.

There is a certain passive-aggressive, dog-whistling schmuck who trots out vague allusions to this without any support. Of course, I am not calling you a passive-aggressive, dog-whistling schmuck....

 

[Kramodlog]

WotC, after being bought out by Hasbro, is long-suspected of cutting longer-time writers/designers and hiring newer people, probably as a cost-saving measure.

Yeah, that was obvious for some time. They still could give a gib bonus or royalties to lead designers on core books.

Paizo has never been accused of doing so to my knowledge.

Time are a changin'.

 

[kenmarable]

Do lead developpers on special project like Starfinder get more money and thus can leave and work on something else? Monte Cook left WotC not long after 3.0 was released and I think some of the guys who came up with 4e.

Being creative types, it could also be common to feel that after spearheading the launch of a major new line (keeping in mind that even if it's just coming out now, they have been working on it for a long time already), they have reached a peak there and want to explore new options.

 

[Morrus]

There are no rumours of money problems at Paizo.

There is a certain passive-aggressive, dog-whistling schmuck who trots out vague allusions to this without any support. Of course, I am not calling you a passive-aggressive, dog-whistling schmuck....

Namecalling is completeky unacceptable here. Please express your disagreement without calling people names.

 

[MichaelSomething]

With Paizo's rumored money problems..this does not shock me at all....

Indeed. I hear Lisa Stevens had to settle for a medium sized jacuzzi.

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