Does Paizo Make Money Off Hero Labs?

Does Paizo make money each time I buy a license for their products in HeroLabs?

Sorry If this is painfully obvious, and I assume the answer is yes, but I am in discussion with some Paizo people on their forum and want a clear answer.

Thank you,
piano

Yes. The license we have with Paizo is a royalty-based license. That means every sale of a Pathfinder core package or add-on results in a portion of the sales revenue going to Paizo.

Please be mindful that the royalty does not come close to the purchase price of the original book or PDF from which the material in the Hero Lab data files derives. Some consumers in the past have mistakenly believed that purchasing the Hero Lab data files should exempt them from purchasing the books themselves, especially since Paizo is being paid a royalty.

An analogy here is the difference between a basic phone and a smart phone. The smart phone makes life significantly easier. It simplifies things and makes it possible to do various tasks much more efficiently. It achieves this so well that many people can't envision living without a smart phone. However, it's not truly a necessity and the extra cost of the smart phone is more than some people choose to spend. Hero Lab similarly makes life significantly easier for Pathfinder players and GMs, but it also incurs an extra cost and quite a few players still enjoy the game without it. Hero Lab augments what the rulebooks provide, but it is not, in our opinion, a viable replacement for the actual rulebooks themselves.

Hope this helps!

Yes,

Thank you

We are paying for the privilege of not having to enter it all in ourselves.

I suppose that it is theoretically possible to just buy the Hero Lab versions, especially if it is just for you as a player. However, there is a LOT more in the books than things that would be added to Hero Lab.

I just buy it all. Half of the players in my group are my kids, and it is better to reference it all in the multiple formats.

Yes, and LWD Tech pays people to Input the data that you get to use. I love the software as it makes GMing significantly easier on me, but without these forums it would be difficult to add all new data. Speaking from experience, some things are rather difficult to script. Hero lab is a great tool, but it wouldn't exist without the books and constant emergence of new content. And there are tons of things in the books I couldn't run a game without. Tables, pictures of items to show my players, canonical information on Galorion, and other details you need to play the game that aren't in Hero Lab. I wish I'd discovered this software sooner. It's really made my life better since I found it.

I tend to view Hero Lab as a major tool in my DM toolbox. I still NEED the books to go along side Hero Lab. It is great though having all the packages in Hero Lab but if I did not have the books, while it would not make Hero Lab useless... it would be MUCH more difficult to use without them though.