Paizo Pricing & Sustainability Update

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Thanks for taking the time to make a post about these topics. As consumers none of us ever look forward to costs increasing, however you laid out the "why" in a manner that shows that it's not a situation of "because we would like more $".

I'm glad to hear about the sustainable paper sourcing initiative, since physical books already have a whole lot of negatives in the sustainability regard.

As for price increases: the value for money is still absurdly good.

Thank you for being so transparent! I look forward to supporting you even more now :D

I understand the need to increase the prices of new products going forward. No concerns there. I'm also happy to see Paizo embracing more sustainable sources for print products, that's awesome.

What I don't understand is the need to increase the prices of digital products already available. Could you explain that further?

Those old foam peanuts were a nightmare to dispose of, glad to see the switch.

With the price increases will there be more support for Foundry? I bought the Season 5 bundle which makes it a breeze to run on Foundry but there are no bundles for Seasons 1-4.

Is Paizo going to consider offering seasons 1-4 bundles? The same question goes for SFS as I'm hesitant to buy Seasons 1-5 and then have to manually add everything myself.

I would still pay more if each of those extra dollars went straight to the workers.

Listen speaking as someone who GMs Pathfinder Society scenarios there is a lot of work that goes into developing and running them. They are quality products that were always undervalued.

On top of that too nothing stops you from running the scenario more than once. Great Prank War? Yeah it's fun. Run it for everyone.

What I don't understand is the need to increase the prices of digital products already available. Could you explain that further?

"Paizo is not immune to economic factors like inflation, nor industry-wide fluctuations in cost-of-goods, labor, or shipping and logistics, and we must periodically adjust our prices to reflect rising costs"

Hum, that is a significant increase !! especially for bigger books.
If I am not mistaken a book like Mwangi Expanse would switch from 49,99 to 79,99 which is quiete Huge.
I'd say, I am more concern on the impact it will have on Europe VAT regulation, involving lots of administrative fees on Paizo's shipments because we will have subscription shipment order over 150$ more often.

With the price increases will there be more support for Foundry? I bought the Season 5 bundle which makes it a breeze to run on Foundry but there are no bundles for Seasons 1-4.

Is Paizo going to consider offering seasons 1-4 bundles? The same question goes for SFS as I'm hesitant to buy Seasons 1-5 and then have to manually add everything myself.

These price increases won't affect the cost of the Foundry modules at all. As far as support goes, we're still offering all of Pathfinder Society Season 5 and Starfinder Society Season 6 as both asset packs and deluxe editions, and if they continue to perform well, we're hoping to do the same with future seasons as well.

We don't currently have any plans to go back and convert any of the earlier seasons to Foundry modules, but we certainly wouldn't rule it out if we had reason to believe there was a large enough market for them.

Thank you for this update and a huge thank you for improving your sustainability practices both printing and packaging. I really appreciate that.

Leahcim wrote:

What I don't understand is the need to increase the prices of digital products already available. Could you explain that further?

"Paizo is not immune to economic factors like inflation, nor industry-wide fluctuations in cost-of-goods, labor, or shipping and logistics, and we must periodically adjust our prices to reflect rising costs"

That explains the increase in digital and print products going forward, which I completely understand.

What that doesn't explain is why the prices of digital products whose production was already completed, in many cases years ago, are also increasing. I'm a developer who works on programs that serve up newly created digital data and also supply old data to customers, which no longer has the production costs associated. I am aware of the difference in costs to support those two types of operations. There is more to that decision than what is being presented in this blog. That's what I am hoping to learn with my question.

So, the same way you are going to increase the price due to rising "economic factor"; if that factor goes down in the future, you will reduce the prices too... right?

I don't mind price increases, but I wish there was a better incentive than "prices are only going to go up" to purchase, like a PDF bundle, at least for things that are in such large numbers are PFS Scenarios and Maps, for backlog filling purposes.

So, the same way you are going to increase the price due to rising "economic factor"; if that factor goes down in the future, you will reduce the prices too... right?

That's a fair question, but to be realistic, I don't think we're ever going to see those factors reduce.

MrVauxs wrote:

Leahcim wrote:

What I don't understand is the need to increase the prices of digital products already available. Could you explain that further?

"Paizo is not immune to economic factors like inflation, nor industry-wide fluctuations in cost-of-goods, labor, or shipping and logistics, and we must periodically adjust our prices to reflect rising costs"

That explains the increase in digital and print products going forward, which I completely understand.

What that doesn't explain is why the prices of digital products whose production was already completed, in many cases years ago, are also increasing. I'm a developer who works on programs that serve up newly created digital data and also supply old data to customers, which no longer has the production costs associated. I am aware of the difference in costs to support those two types of operations. There is more to that decision than what is being presented in this blog. That's what I am hoping to learn with my question.

Hosting and IT labor costs can explain it. If it takes 5 seconds of an IT staff member's day to make sure your PDF hosting server is up and running for every PDF sold, and Paizo has to pay X+20% to keep a competitive salary for their IT staff while it used to just be X, that +20% is going to be passed on, even if it's just 0.6 cents' worth of an IT staff member's time instead of 0.5 cents' worth.

Blakeg wrote:

With the price increases will there be more support for Foundry? I bought the Season 5 bundle which makes it a breeze to run on Foundry but there are no bundles for Seasons 1-4.

Is Paizo going to consider offering seasons 1-4 bundles? The same question goes for SFS as I'm hesitant to buy Seasons 1-5 and then have to manually add everything myself.

These price increases won't affect the cost of the Foundry modules at all. As far as support goes, we're still offering all of Pathfinder Society Season 5 and Starfinder Society Season 6 as both asset packs and deluxe editions, and if they continue to perform well, we're hoping to do the same with future seasons as well.

We don't currently have any plans to go back and convert any of the earlier seasons to Foundry modules, but we certainly wouldn't rule it out if we had reason to believe there was a large enough market for them.

Thank you for at least acknowledging this. As a new GM I subscribed to both Seasons 5 PFS and Seasons 6 SFS for the Foundry bundles.

Any other purchases IMO would need the foundry support and I could justify paying those higher prices if it included foundry modules.

From the point of view as a player/new gm, barrier to entry is why I feel there will always be more players than GM's.

From a pricing point of view $150 for 20 modules is fair at $7.50 per module. For older seasons assuming they go to $8.99 each that would be $180 with NO option for plug and play on Foundry.

Pretty unfortunate - it seems like "inflation" is occurring at a more rapid rate than normal. Though at least we will be able to get the starter books for a lower price for a while.

Wait wait wait wait, what are "interactive" scenarios? Those sound kind of cool...

So, the same way you are going to increase the price due to rising "economic factor"; if that factor goes down in the future, you will reduce the prices too... right?

I don't think labor cost for example will be reduced in the future. Wages (like most other prices) tend to go up over time due to inflation.

Removed a baiting post and a LOT of quotes. Please keep the conversation civil and on topic. Any other discussions and conversations need to be their own threads off of the blog post.

I'm sorry but increasing the cost of organized play scenarios by 50% is absurd! Too many VOs have a tough time finding GMs already, and now you're going to penalize GMs more? I understand increasing the cost of physical products; that makes sense to me, but increasing the cost of a pdf which many buyers may only run once is a bad idea imo.

For a few years I've only GMed PFS at a local con once a year. I'd love to do it more and I'm actually learning how to GM PFS online but I if I have to drop $9 for a pdf every time I want to run a game, I'm going to have to reconsider.

I'm sorry but increasing the cost of organized play scenarios by 50% is absurd! Too many VOs have a tough time finding GMs already, and now you're going to penalize GMs more? I understand increasing the cost of physical products; that makes sense to me, but increasing the cost of a pdf which many buyers may only run once is a bad idea imo.

For a few years I've only GMed PFS at a local con once a year. I'd love to do it more and I'm actually learning how to GM PFS online but I if I have to drop $9 for a pdf every time I want to run a game, I'm going to have to reconsider.

If a convention gets support, then the GMs can get the scenarios for free.

Secondly, VOs can loan out the physical copy of any scenario they have for a GM to use. I’m. not thrilled about the cost going to $8.99, even though I get them all for free, but an individual GM may not actually have to pay the cost.

Wait wait wait wait, what are "interactive" scenarios? Those sound kind of cool...

Those are the massive specials we play at conventions—many tables playing the same game and the results have canon in-setting consequences.

kcunning wrote:

Wait wait wait wait, what are "interactive" scenarios? Those sound kind of cool...

Those are the massive specials we play at conventions—many tables playing the same game and the results have canon in-setting consequences.

what determines if a con "gets support?" I've always just bought my scenarios. It was fine when they were $4 each, but now they're $6 and soon they'll be $9 each. And the only solution is either (what I presume is) a large con, or the VO prints them up with their own money and hands it to the GM? Still not thrilled with it.

With some hardcover special editions going to $99.99 now, will special edition covers go back to the better visual design of SE covers like Dark Archives, Book of the Dead, Kingmaker, etc. rather than the very plain "just the logo without anything else" look of Rage of Elements? I've been a devoted purchaser of SE hardcovers since I got into PF2e years ago, to the point that I own several books in both normal and SE cover versions, but RoE was such a disappointment that I'm inclined to switch that down to a regular hardcover subscription if that's the norm going forward. :(

Aaron Shanks wrote:

kcunning wrote:

Wait wait wait wait, what are "interactive" scenarios? Those sound kind of cool...

Those are the massive specials we play at conventions—many tables playing the same game and the results have canon in-setting consequences.

what determines if a con "gets support?" I've always just bought my scenarios. It was fine when they were $4 each, but now they're $6 and soon they'll be $9 each. And the only solution is either (what I presume is) a large con, or the VO prints them up with their own money and hands it to the GM? Still not thrilled with it.

The person organizing the PFS/SFS component can request support for the con. If they get it, they can make arrangements with Paizo to get the scenarios into the accounts of each of the GM who is running a particular scenario. So if I was organizing PFS for a convention and you were one of my GM’s and you were going to run a particular scenario that you did not have I would turn in your name and your contact information and the scenario or scenarios, and then at some point they will push all those scenarios out to the GM’s that don’t have them.

Tribal Lion wrote:

Aaron Shanks wrote:

kcunning wrote:

Wait wait wait wait, what are "interactive" scenarios? Those sound kind of cool...

Those are the massive specials we play at conventions—many tables playing the same game and the results have canon in-setting consequences.

what determines if a con "gets support?" I've always just bought my scenarios. It was fine when they were $4 each, but now they're $6 and soon they'll be $9 each. And the only solution is either (what I presume is) a large con, or the VO prints them up with their own money and hands it to the GM? Still not thrilled with it.

The person organizing the PFS/SFS component can request support for the con. If they get it, they can make arrangements with Paizo to get the scenarios into the accounts of each of the GM who is running a particular scenario. So if I was organizing PFS for a convention and you were one of my GM’s and you were going to run a particular scenario that you did not have I would turn in your name and your contact information and the scenario or scenarios, and then at some point they will push all those scenarios out to the GM’s that don’t have them.

I feel like this is kind of sending conflicted messaging to potential DM's...

Hey we're raising prices due to market concerns, buy anything you wanted now.

Also you don't need to buy it because if you GM at cons you can get modules for free.

But we're going to make it more expensive if you do want to support us going forward.

I hope the bundles for Season 5/6 work out so that we can get bundled content from previous seasons and for future seasons, to me that is worth $7.50 or even the $8.99 a module.

I'm happy to see moves toward greater sustainability! I'm also fine with higher prices. It would be nice to know roughly what % of price lifts are to offset improved pay/conditions for Paizo staff (and dare I hope, staff at the printers) and sustainability improvements.

This leads to two suggestions for the upcoming Paizo website uplift.

-> Add an optional tipping system at checkout to give a $ boost that's guaranteed to go directly to Paizo staff. A lot of creators have Patreon where we can support them directly, which is cool, but I do notice this is mostly creators who have a higher profile. Staff in comms, operations, ITS, etc, also work hard to deliver us the game we love but I feel like they don't get the visibility necessary for tips via Patreon or the like.

-> Add an optional shipping emissions/environmental impact offset at checkout. I know there are issues with offsetting as an approach, but it is still something.

In a similar vein, I would love to see PDF-only subscription options.

-> PDF copes are accessible to my partner who cannot hold hefty physical books without pain. The PDF copies give them a chance to enjoy the artwork and lore and get inspired when creating a character.

-> PDF copies are way easier for prepping sessions. As someone short on time, functions like word search & annotation and the opportunity to pull up any number of books on my phone during my train commute are a huge boon.

-> As an Australian customer, the shipping cost for physical books on a subscription means I'm better off buying physical books from an Australian retailer and buying the PDFs separately from Paizo. I'm more than happy to support local retailers for the physical books I do buy, but I'd love options to subscribe for PDFs direct from Paizo.

-> Within my budget, I cannot afford a physical book subscription but could afford a PDF subscription. I carefully select which physical books I buy for when I have time to sit down with a coffee and read lore & appreciate the art purely for my own enjoyment (vs. prep a session). I figure many others are in the same boat.

*Kermit flail*

YAAAAAYYYYY!!!!!

Death to packing peanuts!

Seriously, I hide paizo packing peanuts in my neighbor's trash so the trash guy doesn't know it's me.

As I feel that RPGs are actually UNDERPRICED considering the value, I'm fine with this.

I'm happy to see moves toward greater sustainability! I'm also fine with higher prices. It would be nice to know roughly what % of price lifts are to offset improved pay/conditions for Paizo staff (and dare I hope, staff at the printers) and sustainability improvements.

This leads to two suggestions for the upcoming Paizo website uplift...

Thanks for the feedback. Some of these are on our list to explore as we roll out new systems.

Mark Stratton wrote:

Tribal Lion wrote:

Aaron Shanks wrote:

kcunning wrote:

Wait wait wait wait, what are "interactive" scenarios? Those sound kind of cool...

Those are the massive specials we play at conventions—many tables playing the same game and the results have canon in-setting consequences.

what determines if a con "gets support?" I've always just bought my scenarios. It was fine when they were $4 each, but now they're $6 and soon they'll be $9 each. And the only solution is either (what I presume is) a large con, or the VO prints them up with their own money and hands it to the GM? Still not thrilled with it.

The person organizing the PFS/SFS component can request support for the con. If they get it, they can make arrangements with Paizo to get the scenarios into the accounts of each of the GM who is running a particular scenario. So if I was organizing PFS for a convention and you were one of my GM’s and you were going to run a particular scenario that you did not have I would turn in your name and your contact information and the scenario or scenarios, and then at some point they will push all those scenarios out to the GM’s that don’t have them.

I feel like this is kind of sending conflicted messaging to potential DM's...

Perhaps I can clarify. Organized Play is now, officially, a Paizo marketing initiative. As such, it is not bound by the same income generating needs other product lines have. If you participate in certain ways, you get access for free. Retailers, some subscribers, and volunteers get them for free because we want to incentivize and reward them. Others pay for the products—and get a great value—just like any other Paizo adventure.