On March 5, Paizo CEO Jim Butler announced that many digital Pathfinder books would see a price increase. “It’s been more than three years since Paizo last adjusted PDF pricing, and the time has come once again for us to make updates to a few digital product categories”, Butler says in a Paizo blog post. “We’ve worked hard to hold the line as long as possible, even as development, art, and production costs have continued to rise.”
Wargamer asked Butler to share further details about these rises in operating costs. Many of these are related to physical book production, such as “printing, tariffs, and shipping costs”, but just as many come from keeping the lights on at Paizo HQ. Butler also cites “increases in healthcare, wages, warehousing, and technology” as reasons for the price hike. “We’ve worked hard to keep costs down, but we’re not immune to the higher costs of doing business”, he tells Wargamer.
Three categories of tabletop RPG books have been affected by the price increase. Core rulebooks like the Pathfinder and Starfinder Player Core will see a 50% price rise, from $19.99 to $29.99. 128-page adventures see the same price change, going from $19.99 to $29.99. 256-page adventures instead see their prices change from $39.99 to $49.99.
To compare, a PDF copy of the Pathfinder Player Core now costs the same as the digital D&D Player’s Handbook. However, a 256-page Pathfinder Adventure Path now costs $20 more than a D&D campaign (usually with a similar page count) that’s available digitally on D&DBeyond.
In Paizo’s blog post, the publisher made it clear that several digital products would not see a price increase. This includes Adventure Paths with smaller page counts, maps and play accessories, Society Scenarios, and Lost Omens books.
“We know that price increases are never good news for gamers”, Butler tells Wargamer. “We’re continuing to work on ways to keep those costs from rising to quickly.”
Predictably, there has been some negative feedback on the announcement online. In particular, several fans are upset that these price hikes have come after Paizo’s webstore stopped supporting PDF bundles with partners like the VTT Fanatical – which are apparently not compatible with recent changes made to the Paizo webstore.
When asked about this criticism, Butler says “I’m reading through all the comments on Reddit and the Paizo Forums, and I take that feedback to heart about what we can do better”. “We will be bringing bundles back, but our focus has been on stabilizing the new store and making that experience better.”
“We’ve started with some print bundles already, and we will be rolling out PDF and VTT bundles soon”, Butler adds. “In the meantime, customers can get free PDFs by subscribing to their favorite product lines, which also grants early access to PDFs.”
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Source: Wargamer
