As publishers tackle new tariffs on imports from China, boardgame customers can expect higher prices and lower prices.
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- Board game publishers face increased costs due to tariffs in countries like China.
- These costs lead to increased consumer prices and a decrease in new games being developed.
- Some publishers have cut their staff or have stopped production altogether due to financial tensions.
Nathan McNair, co-owner of board and card game publisher Pandasaurus, spent a lot of the year.
His company is known for titles like The Mind and Castle Combo., This year, we have been charged about $90,000 in customs fees so far. Meanwhile, the weakening of the US dollar has made imported cargo from European and Chinese manufacturers even more expensive.
That way, McNair scrambled to find a way to compensate for the unexpected costs.
“We’re not a big company. That’s a lot of money for us,” McNair said. “It doesn’t have to be that I’m hiring people, spending on marketing, or doing artwork or developing with new titles, or reprinting existing titles.”
Pandasaurus customer’s final results? There has been a price hike of 10% to 15% across the game, and as the company strengthened its budget, fewer new games in the pipeline have been there. McNair said Pandasaurus usually develops four to six new games a year. In 2025, there will be two.
Similar decisions have been made across the industry, relying heavily on Chinese-based manufacturers to produce complex timber and plastic fragments that rely on board games. Some publishers are cutting staff. Others have stopped production altogether.
“It poses a risk,” McNair said of the tariffs. “We had to watch the (suspension) games for a dollar amount, so the tariffs were even greater and we had to watch the (published) games that they felt were confident about things and reduced risk.
Why tariffs are attacking board game publishers
President Donald Trump’s tariffs come just after the industry finds its foothold in the United States, according to Greg Rowling Albright, an assistant professor of game research and design at Harrisburg University of Science and Technology in Pennsylvania and freelance game designer. The hobby gaming industry has long had a strong presence in Europe, particularly Germany, but he said that the US industry has not been partially promoted by crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter until the 2000s and 2010s.
By the 2020s, the industry was “this golden age” and was comparable to Europe, “undoubtedly competing and competing,” said Rowling Albright. According to research firm IMARC Group, the US industry’s market size is expected to reach $4.58 billion in 2024 and reach $11.73 billion by 2033.
However, the industry has stumbled over the last few months as publishers tackle higher import costs.
According to co-founder and manager Nick Murray, Bitewing Games, a publisher of indie board games based in Prescott, Arizona, had to adjust its production plans to pay a tariff fee of around $40,000 this year.
“When the margins are already slim, it really hurts us,” Murray said, adding that he must cut his salary to under $4 an hour earlier this year.
Batewing, like many other board game makers, relies on factories in China and faces a 30% tariff rate amid on ongoing tariff negotiations. It is unclear whether that rate will change in the coming months. The extended tariff ceasefire between China and the White House is expected to expire in November.
The Trump administration paints tariffs as a tool to boost US manufacturing. However, Murray said moving production to the US is not an easy alternative for the board game industry. He says that there are few domestic board game manufacturing facilities and what exists tend to focus on paper products such as cards and boxes, but Chinese manufacturers can produce more complex wood and plastic components at a much lower cost, even at a 30% tariff.
“The difference in costs isn’t just close,” Murray said. “No one in the world has the equipment, expertise, the ability to manufacture board games like China.”
Companies shifting production may be willing to move operations to countries outside the US. Panda Games Manufacturing, a Canadian-based Vancouver-based board game maker operating in China’s Shenzhen in June, announced plans to launch a new “customer-friendly production base” in Brazil.
“Would I continue in business?”
Unexpected tariff charges have become more common in many board game makers, especially those using crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter.
The platform that allows backers to fund board game projects in exchange for future copies of the game is an important revenue stream for publishers. Alex Wolf, owner of Spielcraft Games’ Omaha in Nebraska, said about 90% of his company’s revenue comes from crowdfunding sites.
However, the introduction of tariffs means that some publishers are on the hook to pay a higher fee to import games promised to crowdfunding supporters a few months ago.
Some companies are asking supporters to pay extra fees to cover costs. Others like Spielcraft are eating the fee. Wolf said he paid about $6,000 this year to import the game promised to supporters months ago. Wolf said he couldn’t make a profit on these sales because the margins were already thin.
“I’m just really relying on my savings and continuing to double the risk of keeping my business open,” he said.
Wolf, who joined other board game companies in a lawsuit claiming Trump’s tariffs were “illegal and unconstitutional,” relies on an October Kickstarter campaign to return to Black people this year. He said future campaigns will incorporate tariff charges into prices.
“It’s basically impossible to plan given how unpredictable this cost increase is,” Wolf said. “A lot of people are asking, ‘What do I do? Will I continue in business?’ ”
St. Louis-based tabletop games publisher behind games like Spirit Island, a St. Louis-based tabletop games publisher, said it had reduced staff in April and stopped all new projects due to tariffs. The owner’s Flat River Group did not respond to requests for comment.
“It’s not like Hasbro, it’s not a huge company. But in the hobby (gaming community), they were long-term, respected publishers,” says Loring-Albright. “They were the leaders of the US scene in 2010. They were one of the big names you should go to if you were a hobby game designer.”
McNair said the Pandasaurus have filled their jobs after employees left earlier this year and have seen “many friends” in the industry lose jobs over the past six months. He also hopes freelancers will struggle to find work as more companies pull back new productions.
Although disruption within the industry has settled into “new normal” in recent months, especially after China’s tariff rate fell from 145% to 30%, McNair said he is still concerned about the future of the industry.
“We’re a gorgeous item. We’re very cheap entertainment per hour, but we’re not a staple,” he said. “Consumer spending has been a lifeline so far. If it falls in addition to this, many of these small cottage industries could get caught up in the death spiral.”
