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Paizo Inc., publisher of the popular Pathfinder and Starfinder tabletop RPGs, has announced that they are laying off a dozen employees, representing about 15% of their total current full-time staff.
The news was announced on the official Paizo blog by CEO Jim Butler. In the post, he notes that the layoffs are the direct result of the collapse of Diamond Comics, a major TTRPG distributor which declared bankruptcy earlier this year, resulting in over $2 million in lost revenue for Paizo.
Below, we take a look at why this happened and what it means for one of the largest tabletop RPG publishers outside of Wizards of the Coast.
Why is Paizo conducting layoffs?
For nearly a decade, Paizo products have been distributed by Diamond Comics, which holds and ships products to major retailers like Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Ingram. Paizo, like hundreds of other publishers that worked with Diamond, worked on a consignment basis, meaning they sent products to Diamond storage warehouses and were only paid when those products sold.
When Diamond declared bankruptcy in January 2026, the bank JP Morgan Chase claimed a lien on all products stored in Diamond’s warehouse, including nearly $10 million in Paizo inventory. Under the law, this inventory cannot be returned to Paizo until bankruptcy litigation is complete (although Paizo and dozens of other publishers have launched lawsuits to try and reclaim their lost products).
To further complicate matters, Diamond still has a contract in place with Paizo, meaning they couldn’t find a new distributor until the situation was resolved (a judge initially ruled that Paizo could break the contract, but Diamond filed a claim and the situation has gone to court). Because of all this, Paizo now finds itself facing significant losses.
In the post, Paizo CEO Jim Butler notes: “Paizo lost nearly $2 million last year, had to write off nearly half a million in additional sales covered by the bankruptcy, and book‑trade sales remain far below historical levels. While sales through Paizo.com and hobby retailers have grown over the same period, they have not been sufficient to offset these losses.”Â
Who is being laid off from Paizo?
Paizo is laying off 12 employees and is working with the official Paizo Union (which was formed in 2021) to handle the process. No official list of terminated employees has yet been released, but on BlueSky the following individuals indicated that they had been laid off:
- Shay Snow (Pathfinder Society Developer)
- Aras Yazgan (Starfinder 2E Designer)
- Lynne M. Meyer (Designer and Editor)
We’ll update this list with additional names as we know more.
How will this impact future Paizo products?
The most immediate impact of the layoffs will be to Paizo’s Organized Play programs. On the blog post on the Paizo website, CEO Jim Butler notes that “Paizo will reduce their new Pathfinder Society and Starfinder Society offerings to once a month starting in October. Foundry VTT modules for organized play will also be paused until Paizo can find a way to increase profitability.”
Other products do not appear to have been impacted, but losing a significant number of their workforce may have further impacts down the line. It is worth noting that Paizo has since signed up with the distributor IPG, so they will likely be far more profitable in 2026; although it’s also a case of too little too late to offset the financial damage caused by Diamond’s collapse.
Final thoughts
Despite being the second largest TTRPG publisher after Wizards of the Coast, Paizo is not a large company and losing 12 employees represents a significant blow to their organization. It also illustrate the bizarre nature of corporate bankruptcies in that Paizo’s own products legally can’t be returned to them because of another business’ financial issues.
We’ll be keeping a close eye on this story in the days ahead and will update this page with new information as it’s made available.