The news on Pathfinder Online has been dead for the better part of the last year, and for pretty good reason: Nobody is left. It has been one year since we learned that everyone on the development team, sans three people, were laid off with CEO Ryan Dancey resigning his post and user acquisition virtually nonexistent. When you look at the company overall, their success (or lack thereof) isn’t exactly hard to pin down. An overly ambitious plan coupled with a monetization model that presumes a gaming population willing to pay a premium subscription price for a game that is in “early enrollment,” otherwise known as alpha.
Naturally the company is seeking a buyer or an investor and that process isn’t going so well. Acting CEO Lisa Stevens announced that she had received a signed letter from a company willing to take on Pathfinder Online and see it through to completion. This was, as those of you who follow the game will know, part of the end of the year announcement posted December 23rd, 2015. According to the post, acquisition was meant to be completed by March 1st, 2016. It never happened.
According to Stevens’ posts on the official forums, dated April 13th, things are progressing slowly. They are progressing, however.
Unfortunately, this one is taking longer than anyone wants, but is progressing nicely. I will let you know that Newcorp has been putting money towards the current expenditures for PFO while things are finishing up. They wouldn’t do that if they didn’t think it was likely to go through. Now is it a guarantee? No. Because if it was a guarantee then we would be moving forward. But it is likely. And they are behaving as it that is the case. They have even hired a real estate firm to start looking for office space for a studio up here in Seattle.
Stevens later clarifies that Newcorp is footing the bill for half of the operating costs each month. At the end of May, players were told that “the finish line is in sight.”
The pace has really picked up on the deal for NewCorp to take over Pathfinder Online. The finish line is in sight. We are hoping to give NewCorp a voice through the Goblinworks forums in the near future prior to the deal closing so that they can interact with the community and start to convey their vision for the game to you. Look for news about this in the coming weeks. The team here at Goblinworks is very excited about the future and would like to thank all of you for your support through this long process.
Those of you with calendars are well aware that the “coming weeks” has translated to nearly four months with no apparent further action. Over the past couple of months, Pathfinder’s acquisition announcement has been delayed time and time again, with the company more recently targeting September 1st, then September 9th, and now apparently September 23rd to give some news. These deals tend to be pretty shaky, despite the fact that Newcorp has enough interest to fund the game and keep it going for the past six plus months, but with these business deals literally nothing is guaranteed until the papers are signed and the checks clear. Up until that point, the deal could go sour at any moment.
I’ll leave you on a note of interest that a few players have pointed out to me. In about three months, Pathfinder Online hits the point where subscriptions from the highest backers on Kickstarter run out. I’m not going speculate on the progress of the business deal, but this seems like an important milestone when it comes to keeping the game operational.
MMO Fallout will update as soon as news becomes available.
