If you've kept an eye on the news lately, you heard about the wide array of tariffs imposed indiscriminately on all US imports. Their expected impact on prices on groceries, cars and other consumption products is well documented by now, but it also casts a very stark light on the fragility of the Tabletop Game Industry and its near future. The main take-aways:
- Board game manufacturing is heavily dependent on China. The process is largely automated, making this a capacity and know-how issue rather than a labor cost issue. In the short term, regardless of who ends up footing most of the bill (manufacturer / publisher / consumer), no one actor can soak a 50% tariff up on its own, so prices will go way up.
- Alternative manufacturing capacity doesn't exist in the US, and due to the low profits & margins across the industry and the lack of relevant expertise, there is very little financial incentive to build this manufacturing capacity locally.
- Established publishers are expected to stop growing and switch to damage mitigation: scrap projects and substantially reducing new prints or reruns; for smaller actors, like burgeoning Kickstarters or hobby publishers, it may be outright existential.
- It's unclear how manufacturers & distributors might handle the loss of demand, or whether they will still be around and available to the industry when the situation normalizes.
It's a brave new world, and the hobby will end up poorer for it. If you want to dig deeper into the topic, check out these articles:
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