Board Game Industry May Not Survive Sudden Tariff Surge

The board game industry was already known for being creative, close-knit, and for not being particularly lucrative. But this week, Jamey Stegmaier, the bestselling designer of games like Scythe and Wingspan, tweeted that a newly announced 54 percent tariff on Chinese-made goods coming into the U.S. is more than enough to put that future in jeopardy.

Stegmaier followed up his original tweetstorm with a vulnerable post on his blog, admitting that he tried to work on a new game concept but couldn’t quite do it, in light of the news:

“It was really hard to work on a new game last night,” Stegmaier wrote. “Last night I tried to work on a new game I’m brainstorming, but it’s tough to create something for the future when that future looks so grim. I mostly just found myself staring blankly at the enormity of the newly announced 54 percent tariff.”

For the designer of some of the most popular games in the world, it was a startlingly personal and even emotional admission. But it was also an indictment shared by much of the industry.

Made in the USA? Not Really.

The American board game industry is, by and large, built on Chinese production. Germany is also a hub of board game production—yes, the modern tabletop renaissance really does find one of its spiritual homes in Germany—and some companies do make inroads there. But even there, what you get is smaller-scale, including printed cards and rules booklets, but no custom plastic miniatures, wooden tokens, die-cut boards, specialty dice, and such.

And those are all things you can get in China. What you can’t do is make it domestically. Stegmaier posted he was recently quoted $10 by a U.S.-based manufacturer, and that’s just for a standard empty game box. You can produce an entire game, including printing and packaging, in China for that same $10.

That’s why the tariff is so disruptive. The margins on which most, especially smaller and mid-sized, board game publishers and creators operate are already slim, as it is. This is a massive overnight change with no cushion to help prepare. Many people in the industry, especially those who make smaller, premium games in the vein of Pandemic or Fantasy Flight, have expressed similar panic in reaction to the news.

The Head of Steve Jackson Games Had a Similar Reaction

To wit, Meredith Placko, head of Steve Jackson Games and the newly re-released Kickstarter darling Munchkin, was particularly blunt in her reaction.

“I get it,” she wrote in a blog post. “Trump is right that US corporations are f***ing around by moving production overseas, selling their products in the US, and not paying taxes on the money they make.”

She noted that her company used overseas production for the same reason as most other companies do: There are no other options. They simply can’t do the entire production at home.

“The infrastructure to support full-scale boardgame production—specialty dice making, die-cutting, custom plastic and wood components—doesn’t meaningfully exist here yet,” she wrote. “I’ve gotten quotes. I’ve talked to factories. Even when the willingness is there, the equipment, labor, and timelines simply aren’t.”

This is also an industry-specific problem, a “foundational issue,” Placko wrote.

“This isn’t just a policy change,” she added. “It’s a seismic shift for all of us.”

Restoration Games Co-founder Rob Daviau Agrees

Restoration Games co-founder Rob Daviau has been saying as much for months, and with equal parts outrage, on social media, such as this fairly typical tweet.

“Seems like almost every business meeting I have is an existential crisis about our industry now.”

In an interview with BoardGameWire (h/t /r/boardgames), Daviau was more specific.

“I think the damage to be had if those things go into effect is going to be a great collapse in the hobby gaming market in the US,” he said. “People are going to stop buying as much as they’re used to buying. If people buy games but they’re half as expensive as what they are now, a lot of people will say it’s worth it, and pay more.”

Impact on Gamers? Inevitable

The impact will also extend to the gamers themselves, Stegmaier points out. We can expect prices of new games to increase. We can also expect companies to start looking for areas to cut corners to keep those prices down, leading to lower-quality production. (Stegmaier admitted as much.) And, just as bad or worse, some companies may opt to simply reduce the number of new games they’re willing to bring out at all.

There’s also a real fear for local brick-and-mortar game stores, which have been feeling an increasing crunch from online sales in recent years. Gamers buying into their existing collections, many of which sit on gamers’ ever-expanding “shelves of shame” of unplayed games, or just buying from online retailers for a better price, are a real threat to game store sales now, let alone if prices are higher.

“There are going to be ways for smart and creative people to game the system and navigate it a little,” Stegmaier says in his post, but, “there are a limited number of workarounds (non US distributors for one) and most US companies who care about our industry will lose a lot of money and/or go out of business in the coming months. And US citizens will suffer from extreme inflation.”

“If it’s a scenario where people stop buying games, that’s the end of the business for me and a lot of other companies,” Placko added in an email to Gamasutra. “If people find other places to buy, then it will impact me and several other companies that sell through game stores. I’m in full-panic mode right now.”

Temporary or Here to Stay?

Some companies may be able to route shipments from China through European markets and sidestep the tariff that way. Europe is much less impacted by the tariffs for now, a fact that Stegmaier notes as a cold comfort given that “65 percent of our sales are in the US.”

For games still on the drawing board, or even at the early stages of production, companies do have some room to maneuver and adjust their budgets. But if your games are already produced and have already been shipped from China, you’re stuck with this tariff, which means big cost increases on a product that now costs much more to make.

“I have 8,000 games leaving a factory in China this week and now need to scramble to cover the import bill,” wrote Chris Solis, a California-based head of Solis Game Studio.

It’s also infuriating that timing has played a large part in this, and that so many games that have already been designed, produced, and shipped have no way of adjusting to this new barrier, even if many that are still on the docket for this year can make some shifts.

GAMA Lobbying, but Not Seeing Results Yet

For their part, the Game Manufacturers Association (GAMA), the trade association for board game publishers, has also been upping their lobbying efforts against the tariffs, even going so far as to hire a former Trump Administration official in the process, but to no avail, as of yet.

“GAMA has submitted written comments opposing the tariff and met in person with USTR [Office of the United States Trade Representative] staff three times this year to raise our concerns,” a GAMA statement reads. “Last week, USTR added the tabletop industry to its high-priority group that will receive ongoing attention to ensure their needs are being met.”

GAMA’s efforts may still lead to some positive changes, but, as of yet, nothing’s changed. BoardGameGeek’s updates on “The Situation In The States” paint a grim picture.

The industry will work through this, as it has other hurdles. But for an industry built on joy, creativity, and a love of community, it’s an uncertain future indeed.