Paizo co-founder and CEO Lisa Stevens has officially retired from the game industry, ending a 35-year career in the game industry. Stevens announced her officially retirement yesterday after a two year transition period where she gradually stepped away from the day-to-day operations of the Pathfinder and Starfinder publisher. ” After 35 years of making some of the most amazing games and getting to work with the most amazing people, it is time for me to step away and move on to the next chapter in my life,” Stevens wrote in her retirement letter. Stevens noted that she was diagnosed with a debilitating but non-life threatening disease that made it more difficult to do her job back in January 2020. The subsequent pandemic coupled with her diagnosis allowed her to step back from the day-to-day operation of the company to the point that she felt comfortable with retirement.ย
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Stevens has worked in the tabletop industry since 1987, and was Wizards of the Coast’s first full-time employee. Stevens was involved with multiple facets of Wizards of the Coast during her 10-year stint with the company before leaving to found Paizo in 2002. Paizo initially worked with Wizards of the Coast, publishing magazines such as Dragon and Dungeon, before competing with Wizards of the Coast when Paizo launched Pathfinder as a campaign setting and then as a rival game to Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition. For several years, Pathfinder overtook Dungeons & Dragons in sales and the game remains a popular fantasy roleplaying game over a decade after its release.ย
In her retirement post, Stevens noted that she and her partner Vic Wertz still co-own Paizo, so she won’t be totally removed from the company. However, Stevens has turned over all operations to Paizo’s current leadership team, which is led by Paizo president Jim Butler.ย
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