- cross-posted to:
- polygon@sh.itjust.works
- cross-posted to:
- polygon@sh.itjust.works
cross-posted from: https://rss.ponder.cat/post/157533
Less than two weeks after the Trump administration’s announcement of historically high tariffs on virtually all goods imported into the United States, the board game industry appears set for an unexpected reckoning. An ad hoc industry survey conducted by Cardboard Edison reveals that nearly a quarter of publishers polled will simply stop making board games. A majority believe that prices for board games that do get published will go up, and that the size and complexity of those games will go down. It’s a dismal state of affairs for what was once a blossoming part of the larger tabletop games industry, one that has for decades generated hundreds of millions of dollars for the United States economy.
Cardboard Edison is a small publisher best known for its annual game design awards. Its survey, conducted April 9-11, collected responses from 62 publishers. The company claims that “about 90%” of respondents said they expect consumer prices on board games will go up because of tariffs, and “about two-thirds” of publishers said print runs for those games will be smaller. 62% of publishers said they plan to sign fewer new games to their catalogs, meaning fewer opportunities for tabletop designers who traditionally operate as independent contractors. Most tragically, the group says 23% — nearly a quarter — of respondents said they’ll just stop making board games altogether.
The biggest red flag in the survey, however, is that those publishers who want to try and stay in the board game business are actively seeking ways to cut distributors and retailers out of the equation. As margins fall due to the cost of tariffs, which are a tax, selling games at retail using traditional logistics simply won’t be an option. Brick and mortar stores, including thousands of independent local game stores all around the country, likely won’t have as many board games to put on their shelves going forward.
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This is going to absolutely wipe out any small boardgame designer. You can already see it in the kickstarter messages being sent out.
Most (all?) of the board game manufacturing is done in China. The equipment to make the boards is all made in China. Even if manufacturers wanted to manufacture in the US or elsewhere, they would have to import the equipment in from China which would be subject to tariffs and be a significant up front cost.
A lot of manufacturers have come out and said this will be bad for the industry as a whole. Underdog games is already having layoffs, Final Frontier Games is shutting down and is blaming CMON as the final nail in the coffin. I don’t think they were doing well in the first place but I’m sure tariffs didn’t help.
Sleeve Kings has an interesting article on the tariffs which claim 70% of their business is US based and 100% of their manufacturing is done in China. Their tariffs went from 0% in December to currently 104%. Stonemaier games has a good article called The Math of Tariffs which outlines a lot of issues. Cephalofair Games has a good article on backerkit titled Tariffs & Tabletop.
There’s so many articles like this, I could go on but I think you get the point. The US is a huge market and costs in the US are going to rise or people aren’t even going to try. A lot of board games are already expensive, slap a tariff on them and they are out of reach for a lot of people and they will look elsewhere. And all this is just on manufacturing, this isn’t even starting on what’s going on with local retailers.
This will also affect people outside of the US because the US is such a huge market. I think initially you might see shipments destined for the US go elsewhere to avoid the tariffs but then things will start to dry up.
I hope these tariffs go away but if they don’t, I think you’ll see the used market increase. Personally I have a big wall of shame so I have a bunch of games I’ve never played so sitting out the next 4 years shouldn’t be a problem for me but I don’t think I’ll like what happens on the other side of things.
Think I saw somewhere that the US is about 20% of the global economy but how much is it for boardgames?
Pretty significant. Boardgames are a luxury item, and US is a significant percentage of the luxury consumer market. I’m not aware of any hard figures but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was 50% or more.
Edit: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/board-games-market-104972 says the US accounts for 42% of the boardgame market. This includes all sorts of games like ludo, chess, etc. If we were to eliminate those and count only specialty games, it would probably be even higher