Pathfinder Online Runs Into Financial Troubles

Pathfinder Online, based on the popular tabletop game— Pathfinder, has found itself in dire financial straits. According to the official Pathfinder Online website— almost the entirety of Goblinworks' staff have been laid off. A mere three core members remain—"CTO Mark Kalmes, Art Director Mike Hines, and Designer Bob Settles." These three will continue to develop the game for at least the next few months, so long as the community continues to support it. Supposedly the game was only 75% of the way to where it needed to be in terms of funding and the Early Enrollment phase was designed to slow the burn rate of their cash reserves. Chances at receiving the last million or two they needed to fully fund the game continuously slipped by them.

While the game is currently backed by subscribers, funding has run out only allowing for enough incoming funds to keep the server running and pay for a few core staff members. But what does this mean for the game?

According to Lisa, the acting CEO, the game is still in final testing phases and still plans to release EE11 by the end of September. After that, the staff will continue to develop slowly using the core staff while hopefully waiting for  a publisher to pick up and fund them. The community address encourages players to stay hopeful— citing that popular games such as Magic: The Gathering and Vampire: The Masquerade were both nearly shut down as well. The future of the game after that depends on a combination of support from the community, meaning how many subscriptions remain active at any one time, and the success or failure of their attempts to gather further investments.

You can read the full address here.