News Roundup: Paizo Sees Relief Through Settlement in Diamond Comics Case

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We’re one week after GenCon and it’s been nuts. I had to go from the last day of GenCon straight to work about 6 hours later, so there really hasn’t been a lot of downtime for myself. I might have caught a bit of con crud, but it also just might be allergies.

But no time to slow down. Lots of news and interviews. I still have lots down the line. But for today, we have what we hope is some good news for the publisher behind Paizo. There’s also a bit of news from GenCon 2026 post-event. Finally, I got to talk to design advocates who made a case for why naming designers instead of just publishers is a good idea. Hope you enjoy!

Publishers, including Paizo and Green Ronin, Reach Settlement in Diamond Comics Bankruptcy Case

New court documents offer a flicker of hope to a group of publishers who sued the third-party distributor Diamond Comics to get hundreds of thousands of books back.

The filings, which were discovered and reported on by Graphic Policy earlier this week, show that Sparkle Pop, the new owner of Diamond Comics post-bankruptcy, will have to compensate a select group of publishers for books that were sold to liquidate and pay off a company’s debt. It will also give the remaining books back to the publishers (as long as they pay shipping and handling.)

The select includes Pathfinder publisher Paizo and Mutants and Masterminds publisher Green Ronin Publishing. The deal does not cover all the funds lost, and both companies will have to pay additional funds to get the books back, but it is a compromise that may offer some financial relief to both publishers. There may also be hope that it may allow the 12 staff previously laid off by Paizo to return to their jobs.

There are still affected publishers. Roll for Combat, for example, was unaffected by this ruling.

Diamond Comics acted as a third party, helping publishers like Paizo, Green Ronin Publishing, and Roll for Combat get their books into stores. That included the company holding significant amounts of physical books and game from each company. Unfortunately, Diamond Comics filed for bankruptcy in January 2025. It then announced in June 2025 that it would liquidate all of its stored products (including TTRPG books) to pay off a $41 million debt owed to JPMorgan Chase and other lenders. Paizo and other publishers filed a lawsuit against Diamond Comics in September 2025, seeking to reclaim their books.

The Diamond Comics bankruptcy has been devastating for the company. Paizo lost $2 million in 2025 and had to write off nearly half a million in additional sales. Book-trade (aka book stores) sales have also plummeted “far below historical levels,” Butler wrote.

Paizo was also severely restricted due to a contract that made Diamond Comics the exclusive distributor for Pathfinder and Starfinder materials, since it couldn’t move to a new distributor. While the contract was terminated in early 2026, Diamond later appealed the decision. The proceedings are ongoing.

GenCon 2026 is ‘Record-Breaking’ Again

GenCon 2026 was last week. It had 74,000 attendees and 800 vendors, according to its team, which is larger than before.¹ The project wasn’t hindered by ongoing construction or a sudden tornado warning and subsequent roof leakage on Saturday, which led to major delays.

“We were proud to welcome a record-setting 74,000 attendees from more than 45 countries this week for Gen Con, generating more than $83.5 million in economic impact for our city,” said Chris Gahl, CBO with Visit Indy. "Together with the Gen Con team, we look forward to continuing the momentum into 2027 and the opportunity to grow the event into the expanding Indiana Convention Center.”

"Even through construction and thunderstorms, Gen Con 2026 was bigger and better than ever, with a record-breaking number of attendees gathering in Indianapolis for The Best Four Days in Gaming,” said Gen Con President David Hoppe. "We can’t thank Indy enough for hosting us, and we’re already looking forward to our 60th anniversary convention in an expanded Indiana Convention Center next year.”

The organization also raised more than $50,000 for the Superheroines Etc. and Immigration Welcome Center charities during the event.

The next GenCon is scheduled for August 5-8, 2027, and will feature a celebration of sixty years of GenCon. It will also include multiple space expansions, with the hopes of featuring additional attendees and vendors. Multiple vendors spoke to TTRPG Insider, noting how the limited space meant they were unable to sell their goods on the floor.

Other GenCon 2026 Coverage to Note

While TTRPG Insider did its best to provide live coverage of news from GenCon 2026, I’ll admit that we were not the only ones there reporting on the ground.

• The UK-based Wargamer’s Mollie Russell and Alex Evans were both in attendance. Russell offers her own top picks for TTRPGs, board games and TCGs for your consideration.

• Wargamer’s Alex Evans got to speak with D&D’s head of brand Dan Ayoub about Universes Beyond, which appears to be among its most controversial decisions so far.

• The Fandomentals’ Dan Arndt and Ciara were also in attendance. While they have only covered the announcements so far, I know they’ve got interviews coming down the line.

• Gamespot’s Jessica Cogswell covered the latest addition to Riftbound (the League of Legends trading card game) among other things. I got to meet Cogswell at the event, and was surprised to see anyone from Gamespot there. But we love to see it.

• Todd Kenreck, Gaming Gang, and AARPG also had their own coverage among other things, although they’re more video than journalism and focused on specific niches

There are a lot of other outlets that covered news from GenCon but very few who were on the floor writing. Tabletop journalism isn’t a big space, so I want to support the folks who actually do interesting work and talk to creators rather than just echo press releases.

Want to see more reporting in the TTRPG space? Heard a scoop or a story you want covered? Let us know! Subscribe to TTRPG Insider and get exclusive interviews, trend pieces, speculation and coverage of D&D, mainstream publishers and the indie scene.

I spoke with one of the leaders of a tabletop advocacy organization about why tabletop and board game designers should include the names of individual game designers in product listings. It’s a bit in the weeds, but it is a practice we certainly support!

That’s all for this week! Feel free to send us tips or emails at [email protected].

1  There are some fair questions to be had about what this number means, but I do feel comfortable saying there were a lot of folks on the floor while I was there.