Paizo ends its partnership with Archives of Nethys, the free Pathfinder 2e rules hub

Paizo is cutting ties with Archives of Nethys, one of the most-used free ruleset sites for Pathfinder 2e, effective July 24. The split ends a long-standing arrangement that gave the volunteer-run site early access to book PDFs and official art assets in exchange for timely, accurate rules coverage — and royalties if the site turned enough profit.

Archives of Nethys published a statement explaining the situation plainly: Paizo terminated the partnership because AoN had not generated enough monthly profit to trigger royalty payments under their license agreement. AoN's team says they deliberately avoided aggressive monetization, believing it would drive users away — and that their real value to Paizo was the traffic and sales they directed toward the publisher. The site isn't shutting down; Paizo's community use policy still allows free rules sharing. But AoN will lose most of its official artwork and will no longer receive materials ahead of release dates, meaning players who want day-one access to new rules for free may need to look elsewhere — Demiplane being the obvious alternative.

Paizo's financial situation gives the decision some context. The publisher is still absorbing the fallout from distributor Diamond Publishing's bankruptcy, which left around $10 million worth of Paizo inventory locked in a warehouse. That crisis hit hard enough that Paizo laid off 12 staff members last month. Against that backdrop, a licensed partner that wasn't producing any royalties was an easy cut to make, even if the relationship had real value in less tangible ways.

The outcome stings for a community that has long pointed to Pathfinder 2e's free-to-play ecosystem as one of its biggest selling points over competitors. AoN will keep running in a reduced form, but losing advance access and official art makes it a lesser resource than it was. PC Gamer has reached out to Paizo for comment and will update when a response arrives.