Pathfinder Online was announced on November 27, 2012 by Goblin Works and Paizo and was successful in attracting Kickstarter crowdfunding in 2013 to finance its development. An official alpha test was announced in late June 2014. On September 2, 2015, Lisa Stevens, acting CEO of Goblinworks and CEO of Paizo Publishing announced layoffs at Goblinworks of most of the Pathfinder Online development team. As of March 2016, the project was in the process of transitioning to a new developer. Completion of development was left uncertain. On July 27, 2021, it was announced by Goblin Works that they planned to shut the game down permanently on November 28, 2021 after a big finale. They did however, say that it may not be possible for them to keep the servers running the entire time, citing the age of the servers.