Pathfinder, Starfinder, and their longevity?

[Thealtruistorc]

Hello everyone. I've been speaking with some other third-party game designers recently (who shall go unnamed) and there has been some talk among them about Pathfinder starting to die out. Sales have slumped for many products, and the overall interest in several publishers in creating content for Pathfinder is starting to fade.

Starfinder is gathering some support, but most of the interest seems to be in moving to 5E, which is apparently selling a lot better these days. Some folks seem to have the idea that Pathfinder is dying out and that major projects aren't as worthwhile as they once were.

Maybe this is just my circle, but Pathfinder still seems to have a lot of love where I live. My local game stores all keep the Pathfinder books at the forefront of their stores, and finding a group to play with is quite easy. Conventions are willing to give just as many table to Pathfinder as they are to 5E, if not more. Perhaps they may not offer as much as they used to, but I think that most players and stores still value Pathfinder as an evolving game.

Starfinder I have some questions about, however. The fact that it still does not have a dedicated forum here on GitP is indicative of a lack of interest, as if people don't seem too impressed by the game and hence aren't talking much about it. For all I know, the game could go the route of 4E, dying off within a few years to little bravado.

What do you folks think about all this? It's been heavy on my head and I'm curious to see what your thoughts are on these matters.

[legomaster00156]

I haven't noticed any dip in interest in Pathfinder, and it's still the primary system for my group. As for Starfinder, it's new. Over the next couple months and years, it will develop and grow, and thus see larger player bases.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Thealtruistorc
Sales have slumped for many products….

Are these products from Paizo, or from the third-party publishers? And are there hard sales figures to compare, or are these just general impressions? Paizo plans their publication runs with product life cycles in mind, so it would be important to be clear which publications are seeing declines.

As for the system’s viability, I would expect that they’ve long since captured a large segment of the 3.5 audience, people who are used to the rules and who have no interest in leaping wholesale to 5E. I’m in this category; I played 3.5 for a dozen years and recently switched to Pathfinder, and I don’t have any plans to change systems.

As for purchases, I just bought the first installment of the Ruins of Azlant, which is their newest AP. I’m not a power buyer, but I’ve bought my share of books, and my local library has bought a number of titles at my request—Horror Adventures, Occult Adventures, new copies of the CRB, etc. But this is all from Paizo; I've never bought a third-party Pathfinder product, and I haven't requested them for my library system.

So, I’m sure the overall number of players is slowly diminishing, for any number of human factors, but I’d like to see some actual sales data before I roll out the black bunting and scented candles. It may be that the grumbling you're hearing is from small third-party developers who sadly have been losing ground, even as Paizo keeps rolling on.

[Vhaidara]

The fact that it still does not have a dedicated forum here on GitP is indicative of a lack of interest,

You mean like the lack of a dedicated PF forum after PF has been out for...how long? SF is still a d20 system, and as such would fall either under this subforum or into the "other systems" subforum.

SF is a fairly new system, and it's still fairly basic. It's not HARD to build a character when your resources are a single book.