Whoa, what’s going on with the MMORPG Pathfinder Online? Rights holder Paizo announces that the development studio Goblinworks may need to be closed.
Pathfinder Online is being developed as an MMORPG based on the popular pen-and-paper RPG Pathfinder and was funded through a crowdfunding campaign. For this, the developers received a proud sum of over one million dollars.
The online game is currently in an alpha phase. Sandbox elements are supposed to be at the forefront of the game, but there are also quests that no one has to participate in. PvP battles are just as important as fights against monsters, which can even spread in the game world if their expansion is not curbed. Especially Pathfinder fans are very curious about the finished game – if it even gets released.
Big Restructuring
Because Paizo, who hold the rights to Pathfinder, have now announced that they had to lay off almost all employees of the development studio Goblinworks. However, they do not want to stop work on Pathfinder Online. Rather, the MMORPG is now being developed internally by a very small team and a new version will be released later this month. The control is currently with Paizo. The company is currently looking for a publisher who wants to take over Goblinworks and the game, which, according to CEO Lisa Stevens, will likely lead to Goblinworks being closed. Studio founder Ryan Dancey is no longer involved with the game. He will take care of some personal matters that cannot be postponed.
The exact reasons for the dissolution of the development studio and the takeover of the development of Pathfinder Online by Paizo are not yet known. There is already intense discussion in the community, and it often comes through that many were not satisfied with the game and the direction in which it headed. Furthermore, Lisa Stevens announced that the budget for the game is very tight and only the subscription fees are keeping it running. Rumors in the community suggest that at least one to two million euros more are needed to create a complete MMO.
It is therefore not unreasonable to believe that Paizo or the new publisher will restructure the game. Many questions remain open at this time, some of which will be answered in this post on the official Pathfinder website: Will the servers continue to run as usual for the participants of the alpha? Can you still sign up for the alpha? What happens to the subscriptions? Of course, this is also considering the long term.
The community hopes for quick answers from Paizo and also that despite the developer change, Pathfinder Online will really be released. According to the letter from the developers, they are more than ever dependent on the support of the community. However, the restructuring of the game must happen very quickly, as the operation of the servers is only secured for this month. By then, a new publisher must be found who will take care of the further development of the MMORPG Pathfinder Online. What happens if that is not the case is currently still being kept quiet.
